AG: Family court on the way

ATTORNEY GENERAL Glenda Morean on Friday said that the Government subscribes to the view that children are our most valuable resources and stated that the PNM would continue to work towards protecting the nation’s children in every way possible. She made her remark while ad-dressing the closing ceremony of a two-day workshop hosted by the Inter-Ameri-can Commission on Human Rights on “The Inter-American system of human rights and the promotion and protection of the rights of the child,” held at the Hilton Trinidad. The AG noted that as a member of the Organisation of American States (OAS), the country had given its commitment to uphold the principles enshrined in the Charter of the OAS and the American Declara-tion of the “Rights and Duties of Man.” The workshop, which was a collaborative effort between the IACHR and the Government of Trini-dad and Tobago, focussed on several issues including the establishment of a family court in TT, children and violence, children and guns in school, health and family environment, children and HIV/AIDS and children’s education.

On the issue of the establishment of a family court, Morean explained that when the present Govern-ment came into power in 2002, the office of the AG immediately took the initiative to appoint a committee to look into the establishment of a family court. The committee presented a report to Government in July 2002 in which it recommended that a well-resourced Family Court Pilot Programme be established in Port-of-Spain. She said Government agreed to accept the proposal. The AG explained, “The Family Court Pilot Programme will represent a radical departure from the traditional procedures in which family disputes are resolved within the existing legal systems. It is intended that a non-adversarial approach will be adopted when dealing with family issues.”