This week, the government through the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security launched a National Policy on Domestic Violence, the purpose of which it says is to inform and guide future interventions for the prevention of domestic violence and the provision of services to survivors. Furthermore, its implementation should result in “strengthened prevention mechanisms”, while the needs of children, the disabled and the elderly will also be addressed.
The policy document, a 16-page booklet with its catchy title ‘Break the Cycle Take Control’, says its background is the Domestic Violence Act of 1996, that under-utilised 33-page piece of legislation, which is probably gathering dust on many a shelf – providing that those who do have a copy can still find it. The Ministry of Human Services and the Ministry of Home Affairs have, for nearly ten years, ignored the provisions of the Domestic Violence Act. In the case of the former, there was an obvious lack of adequate human and other resources to even undertake its normal workload.
In the latter case, the Guyana Police Force, which falls under its mandate, has taken a laissez faire attitude to reports of domestic abuse, except in very few instances. The result being that the violence eventually led to death.
Under the Domestic Violence Act, the police do not need a warrant to enter any premises to arrest a suspect or render assistance if s/he believes that someone is suffering or in imminent danger of suffering physical harm. In fact, the abused person does not even need to personally make a report to the police. The Act also provides for police officers to: “take all reasonable measures with their power to prevent a victim of domestic violence from being abused again.” According to the legislation, this includes taking the person to seek medical assistance, getting the person to a secure place, ensuring that the person can safely retrieve his/her personal belongings from the site where the abuse took place, inform the person of his/her rights and the services available whether governmental or private.
Having heard and read the real stories of survivors and victims of domestic violence, one can safely say, without fear of being contradicted, that it simply isn’t being done. Although the police have been trained over and over again by resource persons at Help and Shelter and more recently by an expert provided by the United States Embassy, not much has changed. No doubt, stakeholders will agree with Home Affairs Minister, Clement Rohee’s statement at the launching that there are still many weaknesses in the system. However, his pledge to “get the Guyana Police Force working harder and acting more aggressively in this area,” rings hollow. And his concurrence that the reluctance often shown by the police with respect to taking reports on domestic violence and following up on cases, was because they were products of a society that condones violence is also empty rhetoric. What Minister Rohee should have been telling the gathering and all of the battered women around Guyana was exactly what he planned to do the start changing this. The policy is in place, as is the legislation but the action plan to get it moving and the time frame within which the talkers hoped to achieve what is set out in the policy was sadly lacking.
Photographs of victims of domestic violence were artfully placed in the Rupununi Room of the Hotel Tower at the launching of the policy. This newspaper’s representative recognized the dead faces of nine-year-old Sade Stoby; teenagers Omadella Peters and Donnis King; Eileen Lall; Nazleen Mohamed; Nastasha Ramen; Melissa Anthony; Basmattie Seecharran and Aloysia Bernard. For their sake, and the sake of all the others still suffering in silence as well as those who speak out and are rendered no assistance, we sincerely hope that this policy brings about the change that is so desperately needed in this society.
