The Honourable Mrs. Justice Zaila McCalla, O.J, Chief Justice of Jamaica will officially launch the Model Guidelines for Sexual Offence Cases in the Caribbean on Friday November 24, 2017. Jamaica is the fourth country to launch the Guidelines and follows Barbados, Belize and Guyana which were the first three countries respectively to launch the Guidelines.
The launch is hosted by the Judicial Reform and Institutional Strengthening (JURIST) Project in collaboration with the judiciary of Jamaica and will take place at the Pegasus Hotel Jamaica in Kingston, Jamaica.
Other speakers at the launch will include Her Excellency Laurie Peters, High Commissioner of Canada to Jamaica and the Honourable Olivia Grange, Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sports among others.
This will be followed by a sensitisation workshop for a cross section of justice sector stakeholders in Jamaica, who work along the justice chain with complainants and witnesses in sexual offence cases.
The Guidelines provide internationally accepted best practices for the management of sexual offence cases, and offer a rights-based approach to the treatment of complainants and vulnerable witnesses, including children, involved in sexual assault cases. The Guidelines form part of a comprehensive approach that seeks to address issues faced at the investigative, pre-trial and adjudicatory phases, as well as offenders’ rehabilitation and management.
