Justice ministry to launch Social Harmony Programme next year

Western Bureau:

Buoyed by the significant decline in major crimes this year, currently the lowest in 25 years, Justice Minister Delroy Chuck says he will be launching a Social Harmony Programme in 2026 which he hopes will assist in keeping the rate down.

While not giving details about the components of the planned programme, Chuck nonetheless emphasised that it would assist in the fight against crime.

“We must aim to get below 100 murders per year,” said Chuck, while making a call for the police in the parishes of St James and Hanover to cut their declining murder rate by at least 50 per cent in 2026.

Based on the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s (JCF) latest Serious Crimes Report, released on December 13, St James, which has consistently been registering more than 100 murders every year since 2005, had registered 52 murders, a significant drop below the 123 recorded over the comparative period last year. Hanover, which had 24 murders over the similar period last year, is down to 13 this year.

In referencing the current situation in St James and Hanover, Chuck said that is the direction in which the entire country needs to move. The national figures are showing a decline of approximately 42.8 per cent, which he said remains unacceptable.

IDENTIFYING DOMESTIC DISPUTES

Chuck, who was speaking during a commissioning ceremony for some 26 new justices of the peace in Hanover, at the Grand Palladium Hotel in Lucea, said a large percentage of the murders being committed across the island stem from domestic disputes and, consequently, he is calling for JPs islandwide to become more aware of the disputes in their respective areas, and try and get assistance from the police, if necessary, to solve them.

As it relates to the Restorative Justice programme, which is now an islandwide initiative, he said the programme is playing a commendable role in solving many domestic issues and problems.

“Next year I will be rolling out a programme of promoting social harmony. If we can learn to get along with one another, with decency and civility, then Jamaica can be a better place,” he said. “There is no reason why we should be always in discord with one another. Why do we have to behave with arrogance, and in a manner that we believe like we are better than others? We must learn to be tolerant of each other.”

Chuck also argued that it was important that, as Jamaicans, residents should learn to live and be tolerant of each other, which he sees as key to promoting harmony.

“We will be happier, more harmonious, if we open our minds and realise that others are different, but we must tolerate them,” he said, noting that for Jamaica to really maintain the reduction in crime, ways and means must be found for people to better get along with each other.

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