Some men seem to be waging war on women who, overwhelmingly, have been the victims of domestic violence. When will the war end?
Men have been murdering their wives and partners with frightening frequency. Earlier in May, Gertrude Edwards was slashed to death at Ithaca Village, West Bank Berbice. In April, Beverly Mangru was stabbed to death at Vreed-en-Hoop, West Bank Demerara. In March, Savitri Arjune was stabbed to death at Herstelling, East Bank Demerara. In February, Latoya Woolford was stabbed to death at her home in Ruimveldt. In all of these cases, the victims’ partners or spouses were accused of the crimes.
Not only these, but women in several other areas — Annandale, Enterprise and Mon Repos on the East Coast Demerara; Mocha and Herstelling on the East Bank Demerara; Uitvlugt on the West Coast Demerara and West Coast Berbice — have been the scenes of many bloody and beastly murders in recent years. There have been many more and thousands of lesser offences. Elsewhere, the elderly, children and men have also been abused. Domestic violence − physical or psychological abuse − is becoming more pervasive. It does not respect race, religion, culture or class and has penetrated every corner of the country and every stratum of society.
Complex
Domestic abuse that leads to violence and murder is seldom sudden or 
spontaneous. It is usually cold-blooded and calculated and comes as the climax of a continuum of indicative incidents. The question is, and has always been, how can family members, friends and the community at one level, and non-governmental organisations, law enforcement agencies and the administration at another level, recognise the pattern of abuse and do something to prevent the murders and other egregious expressions of abuse?
Domestic violence is not a chance occurrence. Although some of the time the crimes might seem to be concentrated in a few localities, most of the time the causes are varied, the brutality is intense and the scale is widespread. They raise the questions as to why this type of crime has been so prevalent, persistent and apparently unpreventable and what can be done to protect likely victims. In one sense, it might be argued that violent crimes are the products of personal psychopathy and little could be done by society to prevent them. On the other hand, the crimes occur in so many different communities and circumstances that only the state possesses the resources to study the problem and introduce sustainable solutions.
Despite popular belief, domestic violence is not caused primarily by drunkenness, drug abuse or everyday disputes. It is more likely the result of a complex interplay of cultural, psychological and social factors which have combined to create an imbalance of power between persons in a relationship. Where there is domination, or where that power imbalance is abused, domestic violence could occur. When society becomes tolerant of such abuse and when law enforcement agencies fail to act against offenders, domestic abuse could flourish and degenerate into violence. When friends, family members and neighbours ignore a woman’s bruises and when the police fail to prosecute abusers, it becomes easier for the assailant to escape punishment and perpetuate his crime.
Domestic violence is not a misdemeanour. It is a serious crime which should be treated as such. Guyana’s National Policy on Domestic Violence correctly sees the root of the problem as a power play among persons in a relationship:
Domestic violence should not be seen or defined as simply a set of abusive behaviour: at the root of domestic violence is the real or perceived inequality and subordination of women (and children), which extends beyond the individual or family to the wider society. Such ideas of inferiority and bias because of gender must be challenged if we are to tackle all of the chief sources and causes of domestic violence. Domestic violence should be seen and treated as the violation of fundamental individual and collective rights.
Any campaign to eradicate domestic violence, therefore, must aim at nothing less than changing deep-seated cultural attitudes and behaviour that have been learnt from time immemorial.
Context
No one seems to know for sure just how big the domestic violence problem has become. At the end of last year, the Guyana Police Force confirmed that it had received and investigated 2,811 reports of domestic violence in the policing divisions throughout the country. Of this number, only 579 persons were charged and placed before the courts, while 299 cases were referred to the Probation and Family Welfare Department of the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security. The police also stated that in 1,609 cases, persons were “warned” at the request of the victims. Investigations were said to be continuing in other reports. The non-governmental organisation Help and Shelter reported handling 468 abuse cases, including child, spousal, non-spousal, and other domestic abuse in 2008. Of these, 306 involved spousal abuse directed against women.
Priya Manickchand, Minister of Human Services and Social Security, explained that research conducted in 1988 showed that two of every three women were victims of domestic violence. She added, “Today we see headlines of women beaten, raped, murdered, battered and we have to ask ourselves that if we are seeing these headlines today but not in the 1980s if it is a result of increased violence against women or could this be attributed to the awareness by the various organisations?”
President Bharrat Jagdeo, addressing the Indian Arrival Committee’s Mela earlier in May, expressed concern over the number of cases of domestic violence and called for women to be “revered in the family and society.” He said that religious leaders have a much more important role to play since “it is not just about administering to the spiritual needs of people but also to the lifestyle needs.”
The problem, however, is neither novel nor simple and it is way too serious for religious groups to handle. Sanctimonious statements and expressions of outrage by usually well-meaning social and religious groups on the frequent killings of partners and spouses have not been very helpful in dealing with such a deep-seated cultural issue. More is needed. Ritualistic calls on the authorities to redouble their efforts to protect women and their children sound insincere and hollow in light of the enormity of the crime.
Domestic violence has been a national priority in Guyana for decades. Official interest was recorded from the time of the adoption of the World Plan of Action in 1975 at the UN Conference on Women in Mexico City. Thereafter, the commitment of various administrations was reflected in their adhesion to several international agreements − Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; World Conference on Human Rights (Vienna Declaration and Platform for Action) and Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women; International Conference on Population and Development (Cairo Programme of Action); Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women (Convention of Belem do Para); Regional Action Programme for Latin American and Caribbean Women; and the Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action).
These international conventions have now been supplemented by a national strategy in the form of the National Policy on Domestic Violence that was launched in June last year under the theme ‘Break the cycle, take control.’ That policy aims, ambitiously, at the “transformation of attitudes that condone or normalise such violence such as gender stereotyping and discrimination.” Central to the counter domestic violence campaign is the Domestic Violence Act of 1996 that provides for a raft of measures including protection, occupation and tenancy orders and allowing for custody and maintenance, among other things.
Organisation
There has been a definite surge in public information about the scourge of this crime, despite evidence that killings have continued unabated over the past year. In fact, Priya Manickchand herself acknowledged that deaths at the hands of partners and spouses have increased, a fact that suggests that the perpetrators still feel confident that they can escape punishment for their crimes. Manickchand thinks that there needs to be stronger enforcement of the legislation.
The architecture of organisations and the thrust of public information to counter domestic violence are being transformed. The Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security has two main arms – the Domestic Violence Policy Unit and the Women’s Affairs Bureau – that deal with this matter to enforce the policy. It has also begun collating statistics on domestic abuse from the police force and hospitals. Through the Unit, it has been informing various focus groups on measures to protect victims of abuse. It opened a private shelter where abused women seek refuge and additional support is given to Help and Shelter Organisation to provide assistance to victims of violence. Official financial and other forms of assistance are granted to women so that they do not have to return to an abusive relationship; Legal Aid services have been extended and expanded in seven regions to allow women access to legal counselling.
The Red Thread Women’s Development Organisation has long pioneered public information and advocacy on the issue and several NGOs collaborate in information campaigns around the country to heighten awareness. Guyanese Women in Development made a number of proposals for urgent consideration proposing that the perpetrator of violence should be prosecuted whether the victim withdraws the complaint or not; it argued, “An act of violence against a person impinges not only on the rights of that individual, but also on the right of society to benefit from the contributions the victim would have made. The family suffers, the community loses and the nation is poorer either through total loss or curtailed ability to contribute.”
Passing laws and promulgating policies is one thing; enforcing them, punishing offenders and ending abuses are another. The Help and Shelter Organisation, for example, complained that magistrates and magistrates’ courts staff still lacked sensitivity to the delicacy of domestic violence and to their roles in ensuring implementation of the law. In addition, the courts seem not to prosecute cases in which the alleged victim or victim’s family agreed to discontinue the case in exchange for out-of-court monetary settlement, even though evidence exists that a crime had been committed.
The Guyana Police Force – the main law-enforcement agency with responsibility for domestic violence – was slow to respond to the challenge of the crime. In recent years, however, it has gradually succeeded in training hundreds of officers locally and overseas on how to deal with domestic violence; the subject has been incorporated in the curriculum of the Felix Austin Police College. Some police stations still need to be modified to provide privacy to complainants; more female officers need to be deployed to handle sensitive cases and court prosecutors need to understand the gravity of the crime.
Transformation
In the last analysis, domestic violence must be stopped. But, are the administration, its law enforcement agencies, non-governmental organisations and civil society equal to the task? Can the National Policy’s grand objective − “transformation of attitudes that condone or normalise such violence, such as gender stereotyping and discrimination” − be realised? The prospects, once dim, seem to be getting brighter.
Ralph Ramkarran, Speaker of the National Assembly, last month wrote an article “Women in Danger” in the Weekend Mirror. He described the prevalent practice in the courts of accepting guilty pleas to the lesser count of manslaughter by men who murdered their partners and spouses as “a national disgrace.” He urged court prosecutors to “stop the carnage” and for judges to “simply shape up” in domestic violence cases.
Despite national efforts, which Ramkarran thinks have been only “modest” in relation to the “magnitude of the problem,” the reality seems to be that the scale of domestic violence against women − acts of murder in particular − is undiminished. He concludes that the combined financial, human, material and institutional resources which the state, the NGOs, the police and the justice system have poured in the area of domestic violence prevention have clearly proved to be “inadequate” and the entire approach needs to be re-examined.
Coming from someone at the heart of the legislative and political system, this reads like a damning indictment. It means that the ministries of Labour, Human Services and Social Security, Home Affairs, and Legal Affairs must acknowledge the ubiquity and gravity of the problem and, together, must do everything that is necessary to bring this bloody war against women to an end.