Statement- The Children’s Authority of Trinidad and Tobago (CA) is once again appealing to the public to report cases of child abuse by calling its hotline 996 or 800-2014.
In the first three months of operations, the Authority has received over 1300 reports – in other words, the Authority has received more reports in three months than any other state agency would have recorded for all of last year. We are encouraged by the response of the public and continue to remind all that child protection is everybody’s business including, family, friends and neighbours.
The Authority notes with deep concern, that physical abuse is the second highest type of abuse reported with approximately 300 cases in three months. Although Section 4 of the Children Act 2012 permits only parents (and guardians) to apply ‘reasonable’ corporal punishment of children while forbidding its use by anyone else, the reports of physical abuse against children are often far outside anything permissible.
The Authority recognises that parents are sometimes under stress. However, we are again calling on parents to desist from using corporal punishment.