Dear Editor,
In an article published in the Guyana Chronicle on May 30 last, the Minister of Human Services referred to the weekly picketing exercise mounted outside the Office of the President by the Coalition to Stamp out Sexual Violence Against Children as a “strange and wholly uncalled for” protest action. The Chronicle went on to report that the Minister said that the placards were carrying slogans calling for the Government of Guyana to address matters that have already been publicly determined.
The Minister’s reported call on us to “reserve our energy and apply the efforts sensibly for something that is not already a ‘done deal’” is disrespectful. We know how to apply our efforts sensibly. The reason why we know what matters the Government of Guyana has determined and not determined in relation to sexual violence legislation, is that we have supported all the initiatives the Minister has taken, as we will continue to do. We made submissions on the Stamp It Out Paper and were also involved in reviewing the draft law to ensure that recommendations from the public consultations were reflected in it.
Further, both Red Thread and Help and Shelter have been actively working for well over a decade to expose the deficiencies and injustices in the present Sexual Offences legislation. Other non-governmental organizations and individuals have championed the rights of children to live lives free from violence including sexual violence.
In 2005 the GHRA published the first of several research documents on the horror of the court record in dealing with sexual violence, highlighting the situation of children. It was these documents which resulted in the Stamp it Out Consultation Paper.
Among other organizations which should be acknowledged are the Guyana Women Lawyers Association, the Women’s Progressive Organisation and for work in the past, the Women’s Revolutionary Socialist Movement (now the National Congress of Women).
The Minister thinks we should not be picketing because the draft legislation encompasses our views. As we have said, our purpose in moving to a weekly picket was to put to the fire the feet of all those who have a part to play in ensuring that the legislation is passed and implemented.
That is when it will be a “done deal.” And until then we will exercise our right to protest any indication that this legislation is not being treated with the urgency with which many other pieces of legislation, benefiting far fewer in number, have been rushed through the Parliament. We call on the Minister to report on the status of this legislation and the timetable for its use in the courts.
Every day that the old Sexual Offences Act is in place a child is being grilled mercilessly by defence lawyers, their only ‘offence’ being to dare speak the truth about their rape or other sexual assault.
Every day a child is missing school sitting in a Magistrate’s Court waiting to find out if her/his endlessly postponed case will be called up. Every day a child in Guyana is tortured by the knowledge that her or his rapist is walking the streets a free man (or occasionally woman) because even when there is overwhelming evidence rapists are granted bail. Every day a child in Guyana is living in fear of his or her rapist, who is most often a relative or neighbour or family friend, harming her or him again.
Every day in Guyana there is child in the Magistrate’s Court who will never have her or his rapist or sexual offender face justice because she or he was unable to satisfy the court’s requirement of being competent to give sworn evidence. Every day in Guyana there will be many girl and boy children who will be sexually assaulted or raped but whose cases will never be reported, never reach the courts, never receive justice for the brutal and heinous crimes committed against them because we have a broken and malfunctioning system of justice operating in the defence of children, and fixing it for the sake of our children is more urgent than all the issues that the parliamentary political parties give priority to.
The faces, names, physical and psychological injuries of the child survivors of rape and sexual offences whom we have counselled and taken through the court process remain imprinted on our consciousness. Part of this protest is about honouring the courage and strength of all of the survivors of child sexual abuse.
Standing with us in the picket line on all the four occasions we have picketed so far have been men and women who have been directly and indirectly affected by the failures of the justice system to deal with child abuse. We invite others to join us.
Yours faithfully,
Danuta Radzik, Karen de Souza, Joy Marcus,
Vidyaratha Kissoon, Andaiye, Renita Noel, Natalya Bobb, M. Kertzious, Ebeth McIntosh
For the Coalition to Stamp Out Sexual Violence Against Children