No Mas No More Working group
How was the NMNM Working group formed and what are its objectives? Carmen Grefte, a Domestic Violence and Child Abuse Policy Officer at the ZJCN (Care and Youth Caribbean Netherlands) directorate of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, describes the working group’s objectives and the tasks it has undertaken.
The founding of the NMNM Working group
Carmen: “A temporary working group was formed for the first NMNM Conference in 2018 to facilitate the development of inter-island relief services. This working group was developed further in 2019.
In 2020, this resulted in a plan to appoint a permanent working group that would include representatives of the governments of all six islands and the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport with the objective of working together to tackle domestic violence and child abuse. This working group was founded in January 2022. The NMNM Working group includes representatives of the ministries of Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten, the Public Entities of Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba and the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport.”
What is on the working group’s agenda?
“The working group tackles issues that affect all the islands, including the protection code, the Istanbul Convention and inter-island relief services. The members of the working group also organise the No Mas No More Conference every two years, which will next take place in autumn 2023”, explains Carmen.
Learning together and sharing expertise
“The working group’s objective is that we should work together as much as possible to tackle domestic violence and child abuse”, says Carmen. “The aim is that we should not all have to reinvent the wheel individually, but instead learn from one another and make use of each other’s strengths and expertise. It’s really important to work together to fulfil the objectives of the Istanbul Convention, to allow children to grow up safely and to prevent domestic violence as much as possible.”
If you would like to find out more about the No Mas No More Working group, send an e-mail to: info@nomasnomore.nl
