RISE (St. Lucia) Inc.is ready to release the results of its research on the state of the human rights of children and youth in St. Lucia and current governmental and NGO responses. ROAD TO GENEVA – a collaborative action research project led by youth - is a unique partnership between youth and several NGO’s concerned with their care and protection: RISE; AIDS Action Foundation (AAF) ; National Youth Council (NYC); St. Lucia Planned Parenthood Association (SLPPA); National Council of/for Persons with Disabilities (NCPD); St. Lucia Blind Welfare Association (SLBWA).

In response to government’s 2009 invitation to provide the NGO alternative or shadow report on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN CRC), RISE offered youth the opportunity to heighten their awareness and that of the general public on children’s rights, to provide a space in which their voices could be heard, and to work alongside youth-supporting adults to achieve this objective.

ROAD TO GENEVA is a partnership between youth and 6 NGOs concerned with care and protection of youth –  RISE; AIDS Action Foundation (AAF) ; National Youth Council (NYC); St. Lucia Planned Parenthood Association (SLPPA); National Council of/for Persons with Disabilities (NCPD); St. Lucia Blind Welfare Association who combined resources and expertise and engaged children and youth to discover from their peers just how well, or not, children and young people’s human rights are being realized in St. Lucia.  St. Lucia’s latest UN CRC state report, submitted in 2010, is for the first time being complemented by a shadow NGO report reflecting the results of the RTG action research project. Further, it is anticipated that youth involvement will be institutionalized as recommended by the UN CRC, and that this NGO-youth coalition may be formalized into the long-overdue mechanism for monitoring and recording of St. Lucia’s UN CRC implementation efforts.

The 1989 UN CRC, a 22 year old landmark document protecting children’s rights is the most comprehensive, most widely agreed to, children’s human rights instrument in history, but was practically unavailable to St. Lucian children and youth, except in theory, as up to today there still is no formal mechanism to determine the success of government’s pledged implementation of its recommendations.

RISE is grateful to RTG youth researchers, its NGO partners and the supporters of the RTG project: National Community Foundation, Spinners Club, Embassy of the Netherlands, T&T and in 2012 the Embassy of Finland.

See the results at: http://www.risesaintlucia.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=113:survey-results&catid=44:road-to-geneva-child-rights-project&Itemid=70

A Sports Initiative designed to engage unattached and out-of-school youth in sports, the brainchild of Joseph “Reds” Perriera, was launched on March 24^th ’12 in Vieux Fort under the auspices of the Honourable Prime Minister, Dr. Kenny D. Anthony along with the British High Commissioner.

National Sports Associations (Football, Netball, Volleyball, Boxing, Basketball), Sacred Sports Foundation, Ministry of Youth & Sports and RISE (St. Lucia) Inc., and two hotel chains Coconut Bay and Sandals Resorts, will collaborate in this youth development initiative to offer free training (to players and coaches), in these five sporting disciplines, beginning in April ’12.

The goal of the project is to engage unattached youth, using sports and related opportunities, to occupy their time, to offer a meal, and also to reconnect them to available education, training and employment avenues, improving their quality of life. The programme builds on the availability of sporting facilities during the week and is in sync with the mandate of the Ministry of Youth & Sports and the national Sporting Associations to develop “grass roots” projects that will engage youth in the interest of the development of sport, and youth development in general. It is anticipated to start in two venues – the Phillip Marcellin grounds, Vieux Fort on Mondays and Wednesdays from 9 am to 12 noon, and to be expanded to other communities depending on its success.

RISE wishes to thank the British High Commission as well as Coconut Bay and Sandals Resorts for ready support of this project, and to invite the corporate sector and interested sporting persons to offer their support.

The Jamaica Theological Seminary now offers Guidance and Counseling and Social Work Bachelors Degree programmes in St. Lucia.  The Programs will be offered in Vieux Fort and Castries. Apply online at:  http://jts.edu.jm/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=145&Itemid=152.

The latest UNDP reports on the Caribbean are available!

Attachments:

UNDP HDR SUMMARY Final_Jan_11_2012.pdf

[UNDP Caribbean Report Executive Summary]

1451 Kb