Seven hundred members of Jamaica’s legal justice system are being focused for participation in an islandwide collection of social justice and gender sensitivity coaching workshops, designed to enhance entry to justice for weak communities.
The workshops, which have been launched throughout a ceremony on the Courtyard by Marriott Resort in Kingston on Wednesday (August 20), will have interaction key stakeholders, together with law enforcement officials, Justices of the Peace, and mediators.
The coaching varieties a part of the Social Justice (SO-JUST) Venture, funded by the Authorities of Canada and applied by the Ministry of Justice in collaboration with the United Nations Improvement Programme (UNDP).
Talking through the launch, Everlasting Secretary within the Ministry, Grace-Ann Stewart McFarlane, famous that the initiative will strengthen Jamaica’s justice sector, making it extra inclusive, equitable and gender delicate.
“This coaching is crucial as a result of it addresses gaps in how justice providers are delivered, particularly to those that expertise a number of and overlapping types of marginalisation, resembling girls, youngsters, individuals with disabilities and members of rural and underserved communities,” she outlined.
Mrs. Stewart McFarlane mentioned by deepening justice sector professionals’ understanding of gender dynamics, trauma, and social justice, the Authorities is fostering a extra empathetic, inclusive, and efficient justice system.
She indicated that the Ministry has undertaken a number of key initiatives to bridge gaps within the justice sector and guarantee equitable entry to justice for all Jamaicans.
In his remarks, Counsellor and Head of Improvement Cooperation on the Excessive Fee of Canada in Jamaica, Shehryar Sarwar, reaffirmed Canada’s dedication to supporting Jamaica’s efforts to construct an inclusive, equitable, and responsive justice system that meets the wants of all residents.
He emphasised that the workshop collection “builds on over 15 years of partnership and progress in justice reform and is designed to make sure that those that face the best limitations to justice usually are not left behind”.
Mr. Sarwar famous that the collection was developed and is being delivered in partnership with the College of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, via its Institute of Gender and Improvement Research (IGDS), underneath the management of the institute’s Head, Dr. Dalea Bean.
“The curriculum covers key areas resembling gender sensitivity, trauma-informed responses, group engagement, and intersectionality,” he shared.
Mr. Sarwar emphasised that gender sensitivity is greater than a technical ability, noting that it’s a important lens via which justice should be understood and delivered.
“It entails recognising and responding to the totally different ways in which men and women, girls and boys, expertise and work together with the justice system. In policing, it helps construct belief and scale back hurt. In justice supply, it ensures that legal guidelines and procedures don’t unintentionally reinforce inequality; and in survivor-centred approaches, it permits us to reply with empathy, dignity, and respect for the person’s lived experiences,” he outlined.
For her half, Dr. Bean shared that the IGDS is honoured to be part of what she described as an “thrilling worthwhile gender and human rights coaching programme”.
“As a part of this 30-year-old establishment on the UWI, we are not any strangers to the capacity-building of our nation’s justice warriors. We’re proud to proceed the Institute’s Caribbean-wide legacy of coaching, instructing, outreach, and activism, all throughout the context of gender justice and anti-discrimination,” she declared.
In her remarks, Assistant Resident Consultant on the UNDP Multi Nation Workplace in Jamaica, Lesley-Ann Ennevor, famous that the launch of the coaching collection represents one other vital step in realising Jamaica’s imaginative and prescient of a extra accessible and inclusive justice system.
She emphasised that via the initiative, “700 stakeholders throughout Jamaica’s legal justice system are being ready to serve these sometimes neglected and left behind, delicate to their distinctive points and considerations”.
They embrace individuals with disabilities, girls in disaster, youngsters involved and battle with the regulation, people residing with psychological well being challenges, and individuals from rural areas.
“We all know that people and communities residing with poverty, discrimination, gender-based violence, and incapacity face limitations that aren’t solely systemic, however deeply private. By this workshop, we ship a transparent message that justice should be delivered with equity, empathy, and with out prejudice,” Mrs. Ennevor affirmed.
She famous that two preliminary workshop periods – one in St. Mary and the opposite in Kingston – have been held forward of Wednesday’s launch, partaking a complete of 78 contributors.
A 3rd session, facilitating roughly 70 contributors, adopted this morning’s launch ceremony on the Courtyard by Marriott Resort.
