Dominican students benefit from “No Witness, No Justice” conference

Two Dominican students, through their participation in a regional conference, have been equipped to encourage their peers and other Dominican citizens to report crime and to give evidence in court.

Donelle Roberts and Brandon King from the North East Comprehensive Secondary School(NECSS), represented Dominica at the US Embassy organized conference dubbed “No Witness, No Justice” from December 5th to 7th in Barbados.

They were accompanied by NECSS principal, Chandler Hyacinth and State Attorney, Clement Joseph at the conference which brought together twenty students from ten Caribbean Islands.

Joseph, State attorney in the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), spearheaded the project locally and was a facilitator at the conference. He said that a YouTube documentary done in Barbados and St. Lucia showed that a lot of work needed to be done in raising public awareness of the importance of witnesses.

“Hence a decision was taken to invite students from a secondary school from each Caribbean island to Barbados, where they would impress upon them the importance of having citizens take being a witness very seriously,” Joseph said.

According to Donelle Roberts, “If successful, this programme will encourage students willing to do the right thing, resulting in our Dominican society to be a safer place…..we urge witnesses to come forward and testify to the crimes and don’t wait for the victims to testify first.”

She explained that the conference helped to change her perspective of the court system and to realize that fear is often the reason why human beings fail to come forward with evidence.

As part of the conference, each student was given an I-pad which King said could be used to “promote everything that we have learned, through the use of social networking”.

NECSS principal Chandler Hyacinth said the project was a timely one which could be applied not just in society but also in the school system.

State attorney Clement Joseph cited self-confidence and social interaction with youth across the region as other areas in which participants at the conference benefited.