Terms of Reference: Child Safeguarding Specialist 1.0 Background Montserrat is a UK Overseas Territory in the Eastern Caribbean with a population of 4,900 people. The ongoing volcanic eruptions, which began in 1995, destroyed the capital city and the airport, rendering two-thirds of the island uninhabitable. A small community continued to keep Montserrat alive in the North. Families were torn apart as many left to live in the UK the US, Antigua and other Caribbean islands, resulting in a population decline of around 50% between 1995 and the present day. It is an island with a strong religious background and has a Christian Council that speaks on behalf of many of the churches that it represents. This population has necessarily been joined by other nationals from countries notably from Guyana, Jamaica, Haiti, Santa Domingo, Puerto Rico and other nations where persons have been seeking paid employment and a ‘quieter’ life from strife in their own countries. The population now stands at nearly 5000. The influx of persons from other cultures has brought challenges of language and other cultural issues. The last census, completed 2012-13, revealed that 27% are non-nationals. Child Safeguarding There are on-going concerns about child safeguarding on Montserrat dating back several years. Successive DFID funded regional programmes on child safeguarding, dating back to 2007, worked with officials on Montserrat to address concerns, providing training and advice. Meanwhile, the UK Convention of the Rights of the Child Committee raised concerns about the lack of child abuse data across the OTs (2008); a UNICEF/DFID funded report on child sexual abuse in the Eastern Caribbean raised issues about sexual exploitation of teenage girls by older men in Montserrat1; as did a more recent report by UNICEF about child rights in the Eastern Caribbean 2. More recently the Montserrat Premier has chaired a high level government meeting (2011) to push forward this agenda, asking for an action plan setting out forward plans. Specific child safeguarding concerns include: (i) the ‘shifting’ of children in the Caribbean that occurs to and from the UK, US, and other islands and countries in the region. This is for three main reasons: 1
Devastated Childhoods: Study of Perception on Child Sexual Abuse in the Eastern Caribbean. A Jones and E Jemmott, April 2009 2
Child Rights: the Unfinished Agenda, UNICEF 2010; Child Sexual Abuse in the Eastern Caribbean, UNICEF, May 2010.
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