PM pledges stronger protections for children

Trinidad and To­ba­go joined the glob­al com­mu­ni­ty in ob­serv­ing World Chil­dren’s Day, fo­cus­ing on this year’s theme, “My Day, My Rights.” The day serves as a re­minder that every child car­ries in­her­ent dig­ni­ty, de­serves full pro­tec­tion, and has the right to ex­press their voice and shape their fu­ture.

On be­half of the Gov­ern­ment, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar reaf­firmed her ad­min­is­tra­tion’s com­mit­ment to safe­guard­ing the well-be­ing, safe­ty, and de­vel­op­ment of every child. She quot­ed for­mer UN Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al Kofi An­nan, say­ing: “There is no trust more sa­cred than the one the world holds with chil­dren,” and high­light­ed the na­tion’s du­ty to cre­ate an en­vi­ron­ment where chil­dren feel val­ued, sup­port­ed, and em­pow­ered to thrive.

Since re­turn­ing to gov­ern­ment in April 2025, the Prime Min­is­ter said her ad­min­is­tra­tion has tak­en steps to strength­en chil­dren’s rights and op­por­tu­ni­ties, in­clud­ing:

-pri­ori­tis­ing uni­ver­sal dig­i­tal ac­cess through se­cure de­vices and child-safe plat­forms;

-im­ple­ment­ing free lap­tops for all Form One stu­dents en­ter­ing sec­ondary school;

-ex­pand­ing na­tion­al school-safe­ty frame­works; and

-in­creas­ing pae­di­atric men­tal-health ser­vices.

In De­cem­ber, the Gov­ern­ment plans to open the Cou­va Chil­dren’s Hos­pi­tal, a world-class fa­cil­i­ty ded­i­cat­ed to pae­di­atric and ado­les­cent care, which the Prime Min­is­ter de­scribed as a ma­jor step to­ward the na­tion’s vi­sion for chil­dren’s health­care.

“These mea­sures re­flect our un­wa­ver­ing com­mit­ment to cre­at­ing safe, sup­port­ive spaces where every child can learn, grow, and thrive,” she said, adding that every child de­serves a fair start in life and ac­cess to equal op­por­tu­ni­ty.

The Prime Min­is­ter called on the na­tion to lis­ten to young peo­ple, not­ing that their hon­esty, cre­ativ­i­ty, and courage re­veal the Trinidad and To­ba­go the coun­try can be­come when chil­dren are at the heart of na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment.

She said: “Let us move for­ward to­geth­er with a re­newed com­mit­ment to en­sur­ing that ‘My Day, My Rights’ be­comes a lived and last­ing re­al­i­ty for every child. May their dreams guide our choic­es, and may our ac­tions open every door of op­por­tu­ni­ty be­fore them.