–human rights report
Violence against women was widespread and crossed racial and economic lines last year, according to the 2009 US State Department report on Human Rights in Guyana.
The report also highlighted child abuse, workers’ rights, high incidence of HIV/AIDS and gender discrimination among the issues which stood out last year.
Addressing domestic violence, it said legislation that imposes fines of up to $10,000 and 12 months imprisonment for such offences was not often enforced. It was noted that the law prohibits domestic violence, gives women the right to seek prompt protection and also allows victims to seek protection, occupation or tenancy orders from a magistrate.
The report stated that the NGO Help and Shelter made reference to funds allocated to the Guyana Police Force through the IDB to refurbish all police units, which are required to include domestic violence units where victims can be counselled in private. Help and Shelter stated that while some divisions of the police force were actively involved in training to deal with domestic violence, others remained unfamiliar with the basic violence protection order, the report said.
Help and Shelter handled some 471 cases of abuse and violence, including child, spousal, non-spousal and other domestic abuse cases; in 254 of those cases, spousal abuse was directed against women. The report stated that reports of physical and sexual abuse of children were common, noting that during 2009 Help and Shelter handled 66 cases of child abuse, while 76 such cases were filed with the courts.
According to the report, it is the belief of law enforcement officials and NGOs that the vast majority of child rape and criminal child abuse cases are not reported. It added that as in the case of domestic abuse, the NGOs noted that some police officers and magistrates could be “bribed” to make cases of child abuse “go away.”
Meanwhile, the report also found that while the law prohibits discrimination based on gender, there was no legal protection against such discrimination in the workplace. Further, although women constitute a significant proportion of the workforce, it said there were credible reports that women were not equally treated and faced disadvantages in promotion. On this note, the report pointed out that job vacancy notices routinely specified that the employer sought only male or only female applicants.
As regards workers rights, the report said that the law defines and places limits on the retaliatory actions employers may take against striking workers but it does not define or limit retaliation against striking workers, which is an issue that is settled between the two sides by the terms of resumption after a strike. On this note, it highlighted a two-week strike action taken by workers of the Russian-owned RUSAL bauxite company.
Following this, the company issued a letter, which, the report stated, derecognised the Guyana Bauxite and General Workers Union that represented almost all 500 of the company’s workers.
The State Department report noted that the letter was issued shortly before the two sides were expected to meet for negotiations, to be mediated by the Chief Labour Officer. It was noted in the report that according to the workers, the issuance of the letter was a total disregard for the collective labour agreement and the laws. Tensions between the union and RUSAL remained high, the report stated.
The report also highlighted the fact that while prostitution is illegal in Guyana, it is present and continues to receive greater public attention due to the high incidence of HIV/AIDS among prostitutes.
