Child­hood Jus­tice Col­lec­tive (CJC) con­venor Mar­cus Kissoon is call­ing on Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to recom­mit to a child-cen­tred ap­proach to na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment, amid grow­ing con­cerns over the num­ber of chil­dren be­ing af­fect­ed by vi­o­lence and abuse.

Speak­ing against the back­drop of sev­er­al re­cent child deaths that have sparked na­tion­al con­cern, the child rights ad­vo­cate urged the Prime Min­is­ter to draw on her long­stand­ing his­to­ry of en­gage­ment with civ­il so­ci­ety or­gan­i­sa­tions and ad­vo­cates for women and chil­dren.

Dur­ing an in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Kissoon said, “I’m ac­tu­al­ly call­ing on Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to re­mem­ber her ear­li­er work with peo­ple like Hazel brown and Di­ana Ma­habir-Wy­att, and when she worked with the Hin­du Women’s Or­gan­i­sa­tion, and when she re­al­ly in­vest­ed in the school child, to think about where her mind, her analy­sis was and where her heart was when she cen­tred the na­tion’s chil­dren in na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment strate­gic plan­ning… I am call­ing on her to bring back that kind of hu­man-cen­tred de­vel­op­ment frame­work for the na­tion.”