The Chil­dren’s Au­thor­i­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go is urg­ing cit­i­zens to take a more ac­tive role in pro­tect­ing vul­ner­a­ble chil­dren as it marks 11 years since leg­is­la­tion was passed es­tab­lish­ing the or­gan­i­sa­tion.

In a me­dia re­lease is­sued, the Au­thor­i­ty said chil­dren across Trinidad and To­ba­go con­tin­ue to face “un­prece­dent­ed lev­els of abuse” at the hands of those en­trust­ed with their care.

The or­gan­i­sa­tion re­vealed that since be­com­ing op­er­a­tional, it has re­ceived be­tween 4,200 and more than 5,400 re­ports of child abuse an­nu­al­ly. Ac­cord­ing to the Au­thor­i­ty, the ma­jor­i­ty of cas­es re­port­ed in­volve ne­glect, fol­lowed by sex­u­al abuse, phys­i­cal abuse and emo­tion­al abuse.