PROTECTION and Prosecution
The Practical Recommendations for conducting interviews with crime victims and witnesses were developed by the Warnath Group under the Child Protection Compact (CPC) in Jamaica. The purpose of the document is to provide stakeholders with a hands-on approach to child interviewing including persons from the Center for the Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse (CISOCA), the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA), the Victim Services Division (VSD) and other child specialists such as police and protection specialists. The recommendations are designed to accompany the Child Justice Guidelines of the Office of the Children’s Advocate (OCA) and the Child Interaction Policy and Procedures of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF). This document is suitable as a training tool as it contains accepted practices and guidelines for the carrying out of child-sensitive, victim centred, and trauma-informed interactions and interviews.
The Child Justice Protocol seeks to: Improve collaboration among Agencies – MDAs that interact with children who come in contact with the justice system and, treatment programmes; Promote consistency in approaches, standards and best practices among MDAs – Standard Operating Procedures; Streamline processes and minimum standards during the conduct of cases; Discourage the arrest and charge of children; Ensure that the best interests of the child are primary concerns and are achieved when a child interacts with the justice system; For children who are institutionalised, ensure that their best interests are achieved – in the treatment, psycho-social, educational and emotional care provided.
This manual is intended as a practical training guide to support stakeholders in Jamaica combatting child labor. The manual outlines key concepts and provides tools and strategies to help during every phase of the criminal justice response to child labor. Beginning with an overview of the crime in Jamaica and globally, the manual includes recommended best practices for how to identify, protect and work with victims, how to collect admissible evidence, and how to provide testimony that can lead to the conviction of culprits.
This Trainer’s Manual was designed as a guide to trainers and migration experts on how to deliver a comprehensive, interactive, flexible and practical training on trafficking in persons to members of the law enforcement fraternity in, at minimum, the four benefitting countries of the J/TIP project (Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago).
These Guidelines are aimed at equipping those who work within the justice system with objective measures for meeting the needs of children who come into contact with the judicial process. They cover areas such as police interaction with children, the provision of reasonable information to the families of these children, guidance on best practice that ought to obtain during a court sitting as well as court orientation for the child by the prosecutor, defence counsel, Victim Support Unit and other professionals.
Jamaica Constabulary Force Child Interaction Policy
[information forthcoming]
Standard Operating Procedures
PRACTICAL RECOMMENDATIONS ON POSITIVE INTERACTIONS AND INTERVIEWS WITH CHILD VICTIMS AND WITNESSES OF TRAFFICKING AND OTHER CRIMES (2023)
PROTOCOL FOR STRENGTHENING MULTI-AGENCY INTERACTION WITHIN JAMAICA’S CHILD JUSTICE SYSTEM (2020)
Jamaica Child Labor Manual and Rapid Reference Cards (2018)
INVESTIGATING HUMAN TRAFFICKING CASES USING A VICTIM-CENTERED APPROACH: A TRAINER’S MANUAL ON COMBATING TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS FOR CAPACITY-BUILDING OF LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS IN ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA, BELIZE, JAMAICA, AND TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO (2018)
Child Justice Guidelines (2013)
MINISTRY OF HEALTH THE MANAGEMENT OF SUSPECTED VICTIMS OF TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS: PROTOCOL FOR HEALTH CARE WORKERS (2018)