The Caribbean Vulnerable Communities (CVC) continues efforts to have meaningful dialogue with various stakeholders in the justice system, about human rights and gender-based violence (GBV) issues. Justices of the Peace in Jamaica’s southern parish of Manchester were the latest stakeholders engaged, through a recently completed two-day sensitisation session.
These sessions are integral to CVC’s mandate to bring awareness to human rights violations against members of vulnerable groups to include women and girls. The sessions also seek to equip those engaged with the necessary knowledge and skills to help tackle these issues.
For Justices of the Peace, the CVC training sessions are vital to helping them uphold the rights of citizens and serving their community. Keisha Wright, a Justice of the Peace in the parish, points out that after completing the training she, “realized that there was so much that I didn’t know or did not understand in the context of human rights and the laws that prevail to protect individuals against disrespect and devaluation.” Participating in the session increased her knowledge about the topic; “It has helped me to look at situations a bit differently and there is so much more to laws and human rights than meets the eye,” she said.
Even those with experience in human rights found new pieces of information they can use to help them better perform their duties. “The information that stood out to me the most is how you have to react [to] or approach persons who are victimized because you have to know how to treat them, when to treat it, and what to say to them for them to be understanding of the situation they are in and they can grow from there and come back [to the] sense of reality,” said Michael Beadle, a Justice of the Peace in Manchester.
Meanwhile Garfield Green, the Custos Rotulorum for the parish of Manchester says Justices of the Peace should get trained in the areas they serve. “Part of a Justice of the Peace’s duty is to protect the rights of the people they serve. I don’t want them to do so based on their feelings or emotions or information they find on the internet. I want them to do so based on certified and credible information. It [the training] will enrich their ability to serve the people in this parish and Jamaica, by extension, in a better way, fullsome way,” he said.
The 2-day training workshop was aimed at helping participants to better identify key human rights issues affecting vulnerable groups (including women and girls who experience GBV) in relation to gender-related stigma and discrimination, along with understanding how to apply a survivor-centered approach in service delivery. The participants also reviewed international agreements that protect key populations and punitive national laws and policies that adversely affect these individuals and fail to recognise their human rights.
