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Articles and/or Speeches

Plight of the Trouble TCI Youth
Graduation Address
The Impact of Crime in the TCI
Budget Presentation
Children's Care & Adoption Bill 2010
The Effects of Crime in the TCI
Summary of Offences Amendment Bill 2010
A Family Court
Introduction of Ms Delancy
Mother's Day Speech
The Role Of NGOs
Seventh Day Church
Turks and Caicos Employment Bill
Woman's Day

Children’s Care and Adoption Bill 2010
Presented to the Consultative Forum
By: Miss Karen L. Delancy
May 17th, 2010

Thank you Madam Chair, good morning colleagues, listening audience.

Madam Chair, This legislation entitled the Children Care and Adoption Bill 2010, has come full circle. The journey of this bill began when the Turks and Caicos Islands was invited to participate in the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States Family Law and Domestic Violence Reform Project. After island wide consultation with interested stake holders around the country, the information gathered was submitted to the OECS and at the conference held in Grenada, it was announced that the Turks and Caicos Islands was chosen as the Pilot Project.

This bill being tabled here, is the first of four bills that will be brought to this Consultative Forum in the not to distant future as it is for the security and social protection of the children of the Turks and Caicos Islands. What is before us today is a well prepared foundational framework for an ongoing process of creating and implementing appropriate procedures for the provision and management of children’s services within our country.

Madam Chair, as I have stated before in this forum, one of the greatest assets a country can protect is the future of its youth. This bill is an effective method for the protection of such an asset. The security of our nation’s most prized possessions is one that should never be, nor can it ever be compromised.
Taking into consideration the heightened necessity of this legislation, it is presented in 18 parts which is evidence of time meticulously spent on drafting, reading, discussing, and the eventual passing of this bill. This Consultative Forum sought not to rush this bill through so as to give it its due diligence in the review process.

Madam Chair, parenting is the hardest job you will ever love. It is expected that natural parents maintain child raising responsibilities from the time of birth until the child reaches adulthood. However, there are circumstances which occur that may result in alternative procedures. When parents are unable to fulfil the expectation of providing adequate child care, it becomes evident that the process of adoption should be highly considered. I strongly support the concept of “open adoption” because it allows both sets of parents (i.e. natural and adoptive parents) to continue to play an active role in the life of the child and share capable responsibilities in the upbringing of the child.

Madam Chair, the idea of Adoption is not new. Adoption began in the bible days. We are reminded of baby Moses who was placed in a basket and under the watchful eye of his sister Miriam, allowed to drift along the river until he was later found by Pharaoh’s daughter who raised him as her son.
Today we learn of famous adoptees such as, Dave Thomas, founder of the Wendy’s food chain, Nicole Ritchie, daughter of Lionel Ritchie, just to name a few. Madam Chair, there are several circumstances that may be classified as a parent or parents being unable to continue alone in the provision of adequate care for their children.

In a case where a teenage mother did not complete high school, or both parents has died, or if the mother is mentally challenged, or the single parent who is simply overwhelmed, frustrated and with a lack of resources to effectively provide the adequate needs of a child, the process of adoption may be deemed the best alternate course of action.

This bill speaks to the many reasons for children being placed in Foster Care and eventual Adoption. Physical Abuse – Many parents, particularly in our culture are blind-sighted as to what actually constitutes “physical abuse.” There is a proverbial saying “if you spare the rod, you spoil the child.” However there are circumstances that this proverbial rod is taken in a literal sense to the extent that its use no longer fits the context of teaching and correction but for the relief of stress for the one inflicting such a punishment. We must note that such activity is not just restricted to natural families, but is also a practice amongst blended families and thus the need for continuous monitoring is essential.

Sexual Abuse – Unfortunately Madam Chair, the act of sexual abuse against children is no stranger to our community. This legislation recognizes that and makes provision for the state playing its role in combating this perverse activity. The bill tabled “Offenses against the Person” has put in place stronger legislation and increased the penalties for persons who abuse children.

Verbal Abuse – In our society, many parents deliberately and unintentionally belittle the mental confidence of their children. Words of hate and discouragement tend to have a longer lasting mentally, emotionally, and eventually physically negative effect on the development of our children. This bill declares accordingly that in the Turks and Caicos such an activity is unacceptable.

Financial Abuse – Madam Chair, this bill advocates for fair procedures in the financial responsibilities in the upbringing of our nation’s children as it gives the court power to enforce financial contributions upon “dead-beat” parents for the support in raising their biological offspring. There is a custom amongst our culture where a child is born to a set of parents and the child is then somewhat abandoned as the responsibility to raise that child is entirely left to a grandparent or other close family relative.

Madam Chair, this growing social trend must cease to exist within our islands. In today’s world the presence of children has become an emulation of societal fashion trends where the delinquent give birth to babies and carry then around like accessories to their latest designer clothing, and later when the time comes for the rearing of such children, the presence of the child goes out of style.

Madam Chair, we must not perceive that all Turks and Caicos Islanders are neglectful. In fact there is a significant amount of persons amongst us who would love to provide parental services to disadvantaged children in our society, but economic restraints prevent them from doing so. The task preceding the passing of this bill is to resolve matters of finances in the operation and sustainability of local foster homes.

Whenever Government trims its budget, it is always the social services sector that gets hit the hardest, whereas it is perhaps one of the key areas that require heightened financial assistance. Adoption of a child is to foster the love, support, and nurture of family care irrespective of ethnic background.

Madam Chair, on the matter of inter-state adoption there is a need for us to improve the capability for our law enforcement personnel to maintain communication with officials in other countries regarding the continuous welfare of children adopted from the TCI. Circumstances may occur where an adopted child from the TCI may become the victim of a disbanded home, (i.e.; in a recent broadcast on CNN, an American couple abandoned a child they had legally adopted from Russia, and the Russian authorities were able to intervene immediately and personally retrieve that child and took him back to their homeland) In the Turks and Caicos, should we have a situation like that, our authorities will need to be equipped to act expediently on retrieving that child and bringing them back to the TCI where social services could ensure the welfare of that child. Madam Chair, It would be a horrible thing to learn that a TCI child has become a sex slave or a child soldier.

Madam Chair, this piece of legislation is a good one, as it seeks to not only protect the welfare of children, it also provides for a further appreciation for the role of a family in our society. I now invite contributions from my colleagues.Environment