The local law enforcement response to gender-based violence reports is expected to be given a boost as two officers have been selected to participate in a two-week internship with the Canadian police department.
According to a press release Superintendent Yvette Sancho and Inspector Ingrid Abrams and eight other police representatives from Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Grenada, Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis and St Vincent and the Grenadines are attending the programme in Ottawa. The session started on Monday and will end next Friday.
The training programme forms part of cooperation development between the Barbados-based UN Women Caribbean office, the Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police and the Ottawa Police Services Department. It is being held under the UN Women Strengthening State Accountability and Community Action to End Gender Based Violence Project which seeks to support the justice and security sectors and the non-governmental sector in their efforts to reduce violence against women.
The officers will undergo training in the Management of Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence which includes a focus on sexual and intimate partner assault, legal issues around domestic violence; the judicial response, victim support and domestic violence investigation procedures.
The press release said gender-based violence continues to be a serious threat to the life and safety of women and girls in the region. It also “undermines the stability and harmony of our societies as statistics show that all Caribbean countries have higher than global averages for rape and that on average 1 in 3 women experience domestic violence as well as the telling impact on our young men,” it added.
“The training represents the second phase of the project which seeks to address the gaps and strengthen police and prosecutorial management of sexual offences and domestic violence cases,” the release said. In the first phase of the project baseline country reports highlighting the policing and prosecutorial response to gender-based violence were completed for each territory and presented to regional police commissioners, directors of public prosecutors and other key stakeholders.
Other elements of the project include the development of National Action Plans and Protocols as was approved in Belize in May 2010.
