Children’s Parliament a Success; Bill to be Forwarded to the House of Representatives

Over the weekend, on Saturday, a children’s parliament spoke to just that – a bill was presented that called for the protection of young people from violent crimes. Those who rose to support the bill spoke to the factors that contribute to gang membership at an early age and the need for intervention at the policy level. Today, News Five spoke with N.C.F.C. Executive Director Margaret Nicholas who says that the successful session has the support of Minister Dolores Balderamos-Garcia and is expected to be tabled at the House of Representatives.

Margaret Nicholas, Executive Director, NCFC

Margaret Nicholas

“From education, to labour and all the ills of the society. They are hoping and we are all hoping that the bill will come to fruition because it is a good bill and there is no such bill in our country at this time. So we are happy that our minister sees this as a very good bill. I also had a chat with the Deputy Prime Minister who see it as a good bill. So we will continue to advocate along with the children to ensure that the bill is passed at some point. We do not want the children’s agenda to end where it started on Saturday, but we want it to be an advocacy body to ensure that their voices are heard and taken seriously. The plan is to continue with the children’s parliament from one level to the next. If you noted in 2019, we only did the lower house. This time, we did the upper house as well as we had a governor general. And so we want to look at little bit deeper at how we do the electoral process and how we get them into the house, by way of election rather than by selection.”