Call for entrenchment of ‘youth inclusion’ in Constitution

Young people on the island are calling for emphasis to be placed on youth inclusion and for that to be entrenched in the Constitution when it is reformed.

The youths are also advocating for the country’s supreme laws to be presented in a manner that is easily understood by all.

“I would like to see the Constitution be more modernised and more Jamaicanised. The typical Jamaican cannot hold up the Constitution and read it, so make it simplified, [so] that if I am a layman, or in high school, I can read and understand the jargon so I can know how to hold them [politician] accountable,” said youth advocate Sabrina Barnes.

The 17-year-old student had travelled from Manchester on Saturday to be part of the Love March Movement’s Youth Summit, held at Jamaica College in St Andrew and focusing heavily on constitutional reform.

Barnes said there was need for youths to be fully involved in the process as the decisions that are made will greatly impact their lives.

Expressing similar sentiments, university student Duncan Ellis said, “As it relates to constitutional reform, what I and my friend were talking about is allowing the Constitution to be easily understood by the layman, the average Joe, so that they understand the law and what they are literally governed by.”

The duo was among scores of Christian youngsters who attended the Christian advocacy group’s first staging of the summit, under the theme, ‘Our Jamaica, Our Dream’ and whose objective was not only to encourage youth participation in the constitutional reform process, but to start working on the content of the Kingston Youth Accords, a document which will encapsulate the youth vision for the island.

Turning to the issue of youth inclusion, Barnes said, “I also want the country to understand that youth inclusion is a real thing and I want that to be in the constitution to include young people at every single council and committee, that it is mandatory because you are making decisions for us too and we are supposed to be a part of the solution because when we are removed we become the problem and we don’t want young people to start becoming that problem.”

Added to that, she said, “I also like for us to have a participatory democracy where we actually have young people and the people of Jamaican knowing what is going on with our budget. We are spending the money, we are paying our tax, we are seeing where inflation is rising, but we don’t know how our money is being spent.”

Ellis, meanwhile, said he would like to see an increasing of the age of consent to 18, to help reduce teenage pregnancy.

Opportunity for young people

The issues raised were among a number of problems, concerns, and solutions identified by the participants who were broken down into groups covering education, medicine, law and governance, clergy, music, start and media, arts and culture, family and public life and policy.

Explaining the rationale behind the establishment of the document, Dr Daniel Thomas, president of the Love March Movement, said, “We are in a very transitional time in our nation’s history and it presents an opportunity for us as the young people to think about the kind of country that we want to have for the future. A lot of the decisions that are going to be made are going to affect us more than anybody else and we want to be part of the process and we want to be integral and we see it as our responsibility as citizens, especially as Christian citizens.”

From the different groups which represent the different areas of national life, he said the idea was to examine some of the roles that they play, the issues faced and the solution and goals. Those goals, he said, would then be collated to form a document.

Dr Thomas said the finished document will be presented to the Constitution Reform Committee and the youth ministry.

“We hope that the Kingston Youth Accords will outlive all of us as something that we came together and laboured over to say this is the kind of vision that we want to have. After the constitutional reform has long gone, this document, we hope that it will still exist as something that Jamaicans can look up to, to say that this is the kind of future that we want to have, this is the kind of legacy that we want to leave and this is the baton that we have taken from our ancestors, our heroes and this is where we are taking the country so that Jamaica may increase in beauty and flourish for generations to come,” he added.

In March, the Government established a Constitutional Reform Committee to guide the three-part constitutional reform process which includes reforming the constitution, abolition of the constitutional monarchy and establishment of the republic of Jamaica.

tanesha.mundle@gleanerjm.com