On July 16, 1993 the Government of Saint Lucia became a signatory to the Convention
on the Rights of the Child (herein referred thereafter as the Convention). This report written
one decade after the signing of the Convention is submitted in partial compliance of the
requirement in Article 44 paragraph 1, which requires that State parties report on the measures,
which they have implemented to ensure the recognition and enjoyment of the rights of the child.
The report is therefore intended to provide as comprehensively as possible a summation and
analysis of the key actions taken by this nation over the last decade to attain compliance with the
principles of the Convention, and to implement those provision outlined therein.
2. Saint Lucia is one of the small English speaking islands situated in the
Eastern Caribbean, and with an extensive history of French and English occupancy, which is
reflected profoundly in its culture even today. This mountainous island is of volcanic formation,
and extends for two hundred and thirty eight square miles. Its climate is tropical marine, and the
island’s vulnerability to hurricanes and adverse tropical weather systems is undisputed.
3. Saint Lucia has a population of 151,143 (Population and Housing Census 2001) dispersed
across ten administrative areas, but with more than half (52.8 percent) of the population
concentrated in the two northern districts of Gros Islet and Castries.