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Articles and/or Speeches

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

A Family Court

The Turks and Caicos Islands judicial system must establish a Family Court because it hears matters involving children and families. Its jurisdiction would include: custody and visitation, domestic violence, delinquency, child abuse, and neglect, foster care approval and review, termination of parental rights and adoption just to name a few.

The family unit is the nucleus of a society and therefore deserves a special place in the justice system. The foundation of a judicial system is based on rewards and punishment depending on the laws that govern the society as a whole.

The laws pertaining to the family unit cannot be the same as those that govern the society. Social laws find their basis in the political system that governs the society in which we live.

The law is therefore highly politicized and in a democratic society, is usually a compromise reached among opposing factions and groups in the parliament or senate. Family law must take into account that a family is not based on politics and therefore cannot be a compromise arising out of special interests of the parties involved.

The rights of children have to be paramount in the creation of laws governing the family.  Imagine a case in the Turks and Caicos like that of the Terri Shiavo case in the USA.

This clearly shows that the laws when it comes to family cannot be easily handed down.

At the 4t World Congress held in Cape Town, South Africa it was established that; the regular courts are influenced by laws that are political in nature. A Family Court will take into account the emotions of the members of the family and be able to work around them. Unlike social justice, the justice in a family court cannot be “blind” children look at things differently and therefore “see” the world differently. They are helpless and therefore prefer to have justice that sees and addresses their helplessness.

A family is not created by the law even though marriage is a legal contract. A family is born of deep emotion and love, love for spouse, love for children never love for ones self.

The law as it is may not be applicable to the family since family is not about logic and compromise but about deep emotions. The break up of a family is an emotional event like the creation of a family. 

We have long equated divorce with the dissolution of the family this is far from the truth, divorce is the end of a marriage not a family, in fact it is the beginning of a dysfunctional family if it simply aims to divide up property: children are indivisible they continue to be a family and even in the cases where their parents remarry the family simply extends.

A family court is best able to take into consideration these differences and truly give a just ruling in cases of family discord.

The truly progressive societies of the world have all seen the wisdom in the creation of a special court to satisfy the needs of the foundation of all human societies. The establishment of a Family Court in the Turks and Caicos Islands is a progressive thought and must be put into action.