Women’s caucus continues discussion with stakeholders on child protection laws |30 September 2021

The meeting in progress (Photo: Louis Toussaint)

The Women’s Parliamentary Caucus in the National Assembly yesterday organised a meeting with Yasmine Umarji, chief executive of the National Council for Children, and Desirée Hermitte, chief counsellor of students support services of the Ministry of Education.

The meeting held at the National Assembly secretariat was part of a series of meetings being conducted by the nine-member parliamentary committee with stakeholders involved in children’s rights and child protection, in regards to the proposed Sexual Offences Bill and the report on enhancing Child Protection in Seychelles by the Child Law Reform Committee (CLRC), headed by Dr Mathilda Twomey.

Its chairperson, Honorable Regina Esparon, said after the meeting that as the proposed bill will come before the National Assembly, they want to gather enough information and views from stakeholders on the difficulties and challenges they are facing with regard to children’s rights and child protection in the country.

“This will help us make informed decisions when the proposed Sexual Offences Bill comes before us in the National Assembly,” Honourable Esparon said, noting that the caucus wants to work with stakeholders in the fight to eliminate child abuse in the country and also to help educate the public and to bring more awareness to the community.

Both Ms Hermitte and Mrs Umarji said they were honoured and privileged to have been invited to make known their respective entities’ position in child protection and the work being done against child abuse.

Both the Ministry of Education and the National Council for Children (NCC) are working together through an inter-agency network to combat child abuse. 

Mrs Hermitte said apart from briefing the caucus on the collaborative inter-agency network among other issues, she also spoke of the need for more specialists in child protection and for school counsellors to be better trained so as to provide better service.

“In fact we don’t only need specialists to work in schools or in other agencies, but we need specialists for the prison as well. People who offend, especially in the line of child sexual abuse, they go to prison and they do not get psycho-social support. It is no surprise that the abuse is recurred by the same group of people when they go back in society,” said Ms Hermitte, who also noted that although there is a need for a leading agency for child protection, the protection of the child is everyone’s business.

As for Mrs Umarji, she said she gave the caucus an insight on what the NCC is doing in the field of safeguarding and child protection.

She stated that apart from providing support and intervention, the NCC – which boasts three psychologists and two counselors – offers therapeutic support and treatment to children who have gone through trauma and are in need of such assistance.

She noted that the service is being well used with 104 children, mainly boys, accessing assistance in the last six months of 2021.

She said the NCC is working closely with the Ministry of Education and a number of affiliated partners in raising the awareness for safeguarding and child protection in schools and in the community.

“We want to really push the safeguarding aspect because that’s the preventive measures whereas child protection is the reactive, it happens and then you have to have solutions and the support. We’d like to focus more on how we can educate the public, the community and the children also, so that they know what to do, they know the symptoms, they see the signs and they then act accordingly,” she added.

Mrs Umarji explained that there are very effective clear reporting systems in place that children can use to report abuse cases and that adults are made aware that they will be dealt with promptly if they commit child abuses.

She also conveyed the need for training and specialised staff to work with traumatised children and traumatised adults as well.

Other members of the committee present for the meeting were Audrey Vidot, Jany de Letourdie, Kelly Samynadin, Nolin Sophola, Desheila Bastienne, Doyace Porice and Sylvanne Lemiel. Rosie Bistoquet was not present.

The women’s parliamentary caucus’ next meeting is with the Commissioner of Police, Ted Barbé.

Patrick Joubert