What are the Rules & Criteria for entering the Miss Jamaica World competition?

Posted on August 16, 2017 by diGJamaica 

The Miss Jamaica World pageant has been an annual staple on the nation’s calendar since Spartan Health Club took on the national franchise in 1976. Coincidentally, in that year, Jamaica’s first representative, Cindy Breakspeare, won the Miss World competition. Since that time, Jamaica has experienced outstanding success on the world’s beauty stage. In 2017, for the first time in a long time, the competition got embroiled in controversy because finalist Shaneke Williams, was arrested in 2015 and charged with aiding and abetting rape and sexual touching. While the matter was dismissed from court after the complainant decided not to proceed with the case, many persons voiced the opinion that they did not think Williams was a suitable candidate for the Miss World competition.

This raised questions about existing guidelines for entering the competition, and for handling a situation where people complain about a pageant contestant: What happens if a contestant has a criminal record? What if they are reformed? Is there scope for redemption? Below, we have outlined some key points from the Rules & Criteria for entering the Miss Jamaica World Pageant relevant to answering this question.

Criteria for Entry:

The MJW Pageant is open to all young, single female Jamaicans and the qualification for eligibility is that all contestants:

Shall either have been born in Jamaica, be the child of a Jamaican parent, or is a naturalized citizen of Jamaica.
Shall have attained the age of 16 years and 6 months on or before the 1st day of August 2017, but shall not have attained the age of 27 years on that date.
Shall be of good character and possess charm, poise, and personality and have beauty of face and figure.
Shall be a person whose background is not likely to bring into disrepute the Miss Jamaica Beauty Pageant or MJW title or the Promoter or any person associated with them.
Shall be a person:
Who has never been legally married
Who has never given birth to a child
Shall not have entered and will not enter into any contract with any other promoter or model agency which is or will be in force during the period of the contest which will require her personal appearance or publication of her name or photographs in association with any product or service save that, in the event the applicant is contracted to a promoter or model agency, the said promoter or Model Agency is willing to release the applicant from any such contract or contracts for the duration of the MJW 2017 Pageant and, in the event that the applicant wins the MJW 2017 Contest, for the period leading up to the termination of the MJW 2018 Pageant.
The Promoter has the right, without giving any reason whatsoever; to bar any applicant from entering the Miss Jamaica (World) Contest whom he feels may bring the contest into disrepute.
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Selection of Miss Jamaica World 2017

Contestants will be judged by beauty of face, figure, deportment, charm, poise, personality, general conversation, intelligence as well as conduct during the period of the contest.
Contestants will be pre-judged on a date prior to the Grand Coronation Show.
The final selection will take place at the Grand Coronation Show.
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Role Model

The winner must be prepared to be a positive role model for the youth of Jamaica and to use every opportunity that will avail itself during the year of her reign, to project Jamaica in a positive light.

Anyone knowing that she is not eligible to enter this Contest according to the rules of eligibility outlined above or who finds any of the rules or conditions objectionable should refrain from entering the contest. 

For the full list of rules and criteria, see Miss Jamaica World website

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