In observance of World Children’s Day on November 20, 2022, the Juvenile Holding Centre, today, Monday, November 21, 2022, celebrated the children housed at the Holding Centre with a small ceremony and career exhibition.
The exhibition featured representatives from the Guyana Police Force, the Guyana Fire Service and the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit. The youths were given the opportunity to visit the booth and learn about the various occupations. They were also given a career talk by the Reps, who told them that they can achieve anything with hard work and discipline.
World Children’s Day provides an opportunity to advocate, promote and celebrate children’s rights, translating into dialogues and actions to build a better world for children.
The Honourable Minister of Home Affairs, Mr. Robeson Benn, in giving the feature address explained that he is aware of issues such as poverty and limited opportunities which may have led to the children being held at the Centre. “Regrettably, as those issues are, we want you to be much greater than the visions and ambitions you have for yourselves”, he stated.
He indicated that he wanted them to be comfortable and to be meaningfully occupied. “We want you to be comfortable and always occupied doing something useful, like reading books”, he further stated.
Minister Benn emphasized, “the training and the facilitation are intended to make you better persons and to overcome the difficult experience, the difficult happenstance that you have. That’s what we want. We want you to be and to feel loved. We view you as our children. We do not view you as criminals. We want you to feel loved, to feel welcome and to want to participate. I would prefer a system where we don’t have any closed doors or lockups here for you”.
Minister Benn reiterated that he didn’t want the juveniles to be locked up even under the circumstances in which they were sent to the Centre. He wants them to feel engaged and respected and have better opportunities in the future.
While the law requires that the juveniles are treated a certain way and that responsibility cannot be ignored, beyond this, Minister Benn indicated that the Ministry would continue to work to bring the juveniles to a position where they can be ultimately free beyond the issues of the courts.
“I’m delighted to hear that kids here did well at CXC. Even though you are in constrained circumstances, it means you can focus on self-development and ambition. We have to ensure that we provide more and more opportunities for you. And if the relationship between you and your parents or relatives is broken, we will work towards improving that, and for you to transition smoothly back into society, those are the things we must do. But you must walk this road with us after understanding that we want you to be safe and better going forward”, Minister asserted.
The Director of the Juvenile Justice Department, Mrs. Edghill Stuart, during her brief remarks, indicated that “we are here today to ensure we offer our juveniles second chances. The Government of Guyana, through the Juvenile Justice Act of 2018, ensures that we are moving from punitive justice to restorative justice”.
There’s a saying she mentioned “you do a crime, you pay the time”, however, the aim of the Department is to ensure that even if a juvenile is judicially processed and they have to spend any time in a detention facility, they are being rehabilitated to become meaningful members of society.
Mrs. Edghill Stuart mentioned that this can not be achieved at the facility level alone; therefore, she’s asking the parents, relatives and friends for support to revolutionize their minds. She also commended the staff for always going above and beyond the call of duty.
Mrs. Edghill Stuart thanked the Honourable Minister of Home Affairs and Permanent Secretary for their unwavering support. She also expressed gratitude to all the NGOs who came on board and gave subventions and looks forward to their continued support.
*History of World Children’s Day*
World Children’s Day was celebrated on November 20th, 2022, under the theme “Inclusion, For Every Child”.
World Children’s Day was first established in 1954 as Universal Children’s Day and is celebrated on 20 November each year to promote international togetherness and awareness among children worldwide and improve children’s welfare. On November 20, 1959, United Nations General Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, and on 20, November 1989 UN General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The anniversary of both these Declaration and Convention is also marked by the UN on every 20th November since 1990.
Before this, in 1857, Dr. Charles Leonard started this day by naming it Rose Day in the United Kingdom and in 1920, the Republic of Turkey officially acknowledged “Children’s Day” as a national holiday.