Police (Civilian Oversight) Authority

On April 23, 2009, students from 24 corporate area high schools participated in a special youth forum, aimed at increasing awareness of their rights and responsibilities as Jamaican citizens.
The event, held at the Mona Visitor's Lodge at the University of the West Indies, was in keeping with a series of island wide fora being staged by the Police Civilian Oversight Authority (PCOA) under the theme: 'Get it right by knowing your rights in order to build a better Jamaica.' Sessions have already been held in St. James, Westmoreland, and Clarendon.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the PCOA, Dave McIntosh, said the fora were aimed at instilling good values and a sense of citizenry in the nation's youth, which would enable them "to go through life with a very firm framework of how you should act as a proper citizen in society."
In knowing their rights, roles and responsibilities as good citizens, he said, they would be able to "go forward in society and resolve issues that will arise without it getting to the stage that we are going to have tragedy and conflict."
Public Education and Special Projects Manager in the Office of the Children's Advocate, Georgia Garvey, praised the PCOA for their proactive approach "in their attempt to promote good citizenry through engaging our children".

GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO INVEST MORE IN THE NATION'S YOUTH SAYS NOTED ANTHROPOLOGIST

Jamaica needs to pay more attention to the nation's youth as it is failing in "absolutely all categories" outlined in the Declaration of the Rights of the Child says noted Anthropologist and Lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work at the University of the West Indies, Dr. Herbert Gayle.
The Declaration, which was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1959, relates to a series of children's rights proclamations.
"If you look around the countries with problems, they do not have a [sole] Ministry of Youth; they have Youth and Sports and Youth and something... and if it is combined with for instance with education guess what happens? Education gets 90 per cent of the money and whatever is left goes in a little area called the youth unit," he lamented.
He was addressing more than 200 students from 22 corporate area high schools and the National Youth Service at a Youth Forum recently hosted by the Police (Civilian Oversight) Authority (PCOA) at the Mona Visitor's Lodge and Conference Centre on the campus of the University of the West Indies.
Dr. Gayle said that Jamaica was not alone when it came to failing to honour all the principles of the Declaration, as the region on a whole was similarly "in a mess".
"When the entire region is bad, where do we turn to learn? It would seem then that as Jamaicans, who have led the way for the Caribbean sometimes in bad things but most times in good things, has to take the lead," he argued.

Singling out Principle 4 of the Declaration, which summarizes that a child should enjoy the benefits of social security, Dr. Gayle said there was need for urgent attention in this area. "We just completed a study that showed that half of the students studying in a very poor school had only one cooked meal per day from the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH)," he disclosed.
In light of this, he called for policy makers to revisit the construction of the programme of welfare and expand it in a way so that the bottom quintile, which is comprised of the nation's poorest, the youth, can have at least a semblance of a decent life.
Dr. Gayle was one of several presenters including facilitators from the Dispute Resolution Foundation, who engaged the students at the Forum, which was held under the theme, 'Get it Right by Knowing Your Rights in order to build a Better Jamaica".
The Forum marked the first time since the commencement of the Authority's islandwide series of fora in 2008, which covered the parishes of St. James, Westmoreland and Clarendon, that the nation's youth were exclusively targeted.