Projects /Activities of CRARJO

Since CRARJO’s incorporation, CRAJO has been involved in the following activities:
  • Presentation by the Chairman to the Tobago House of Assembly’s (T.H.A.) Division of Health, Wellness and Family Development, Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention Programme – Substance Abuse Symposium on September 5, 2019 on: Perpetrator Rehabilitation: Making a Case for Restorative and Rehabilitative Work For Drug Traffickers.
  • Presentation by the Chairman to the Law Association of Trinidad and Tobago Continuing Legal Education Seminar on October 3, 2019 on Restorative Justice: A Paradigm Shift in Justice.
  • CRARJO members remain active during the pandemic. The Chairperson of CRARJO, Senator Hazel Thompson-Ahye, accepted an invitation from the University of Trinidad and Tobago Institute of Criminology and Public Safety on October 9, 2020 to lecture to their students on: Strengthening the Justice System for Children by using Restorative Practices.
  • IN 2020, the Chairperson participated in Thomson Reuters and International Society of Family Law (ISFL) Online World Conference: Family and Crisis: Going Through Pandemics, sitting on the Panel on: “Role of the State and Vulnerable Groups. She presented on: “The Most Vulnerable of the Vulnerables: Children Going Through Pandemics, and in particular, Children in Care and in Court.
  • In 2021, the Chairman delivered a paper at the Commonwealth Law Conference 2021 in Nassau, The Bahamas on Child Protection in the Commonwealth: Are We Doing Enough?
  • In 2021, the Chairman participated in Geneva University e-Summer School Roundtable Discussions on Children’s Rights Debates in CARICOM. She presented a paper entitled: Children’s Rights Debate in the CARICOM Region with special emphasis on Child Justice.
  • The Chairman participated in the Caribbean Voice Panel on: Addressing Child Abuse.”
  • The Chairman also accepted an invitation from the Principal of the Eugene Dupuch Law School in The Bahamas to speak at the Law School’s virtual Juvenile Justice Seminar on February 11, 2021. In her wide-ranging address, entitled: Juvenile Justice Reform: A Caribbean Perspective, Senator Thompson-Ahye discussed the progress made by Caribbean States in implementation of not only the U. N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, in terms of States’ obligations regarding child justice, but also, the other international standards and norms in child justice, as the Riyadh Guidelines, the Beijing Rules and the JDL Rules. She lauded the progress made by most States in increasing their age of criminal responsibility, the extension of protection to the age of majority, abolition of status offences, providing special courts for children, diversion from court, abolition of corporal punishment as a punitive sanction and as a disciplinary measure, and the training of personnel throughout the child justice system.
  • CRARJO Board Member, Bertrand Moses, (since resigned to join UNICEF) was a presenter at the Child Abuse and Awareness and Prevention Symposium organized by the Trinidad and Tobago Medical Association in collaboration with the Children’s Authority of Trinidad and Tobago. His topic was: “A Look at Child Abuse Detection, Reporting and Prevention.”
  • The Board of CRARJO organized the International Society of Family (ISFL) 3rd.Caribbean Regional Conference at Magdalena Grand Beach and Golf Resort in Tobago, during December 13-16, 2022 at which 44 papers were presented. The conference, which was opened by Her Excellency, President Paula Mae Weekes, had participants from twenty-two (22) countries. The theme was: “Safeguarding the Human Rights of Family Members from the Womb to the Tomb.”
  • The Chairman of CRARJO attended the Commonwealth law Conference in Goa, India, during 5th – 9th. March, 2023 and presented a paper on “Child brides and legalized marital rape -A Commonwealth tragedy.”
  • Currently, CRARJO is organizing the 4th. ISFL Caribbean Regional Conference, which is to be held during November 13- 15, 2024, at Trinidad Hilton and Conference Centre. The theme of the conference is: “The Convention on the Rights of the Child at 35 years. The Promise Kept or “A Dream Deferred?”