Email

Print

Dr. Susan Kasadde, UNICEF Country Representative
"If you take away violence from armed conflict from wars, if you take away the current level of death due to violence in Syria, in the middle East, in Africa resulting from war, then the region with the highest level of violence where teenagers, children are more likely to die from violent behavior is Latin America and the Caribbean."

Courtney Weatherburne reporting
That's a very troubling reality - one that continues to manifest itself in the harm and killing of innocent children and women.

And RET International along with its partners met today at the UWI campus to address this reality - more specifically as it relates to Gender-Based violence and human trafficking. The main objective is to create a system to better respond to this social crisis.

Malenie Barnes, National Program Coordinator, RET
"Today's forum is looking at talking about the mechanism and process in place that respond to incidences of gender based violence and trafficking in persons. We are looking at what exists, what are the gaps in the response and recommendations from civil society, from government and the community on how to on how to improve those mechanisms so we can achieve and work towards timely and transparent response."

Now there are women and children who have escaped violent situations whether at home or in a relationship. There are also victims of human trafficking who have been rescued and returned to their families. But there are hundreds, even thousands of women suffering right now and the systems or mechanisms in place have failed these victims.

Malenie Barnes
"The response has always been so fragmented and silo."

"The idea is that one we can look at one how we harmonize the response so that it is not fragmented and two that the community knows and understands how the process works so we can look building confidence of the community in the systems."

Re-shaping a response system won't be easy, it will take time and meaningful collaboration - but it all has to start with discussions and then hopefully - action.

Esther Ayuso, Chair, National Women's Commission
"This forum is a start. There is always a place to start and we have done so many times, we have had conferences and it always good to dish out, to think, to communicate all our concerns but I think to takes a little deeper networking, a little heart to heart to break the cycle of violence in our country."

There was a panel discussion to review recommendations for improved mechanisms. We will keep following their progress.