A more concerted effort is required from civil society to bring effective pressure to bear on the government agencies and ministries with primary responsibility such as the police and the courts to protect women from violence, the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) says.
In a statement on the International Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women, which was observed yesterday, the GHRA said that despite the many statements, activities and commemorations of the Day which are no doubt sincere, the response to the incidence of violence against women remains inadequate and ineffective. “A more concerted effort is required from civil society at all levels, individuals, families and organizations to bring effective pressure to bear on the Government agencies and Ministries with primary responsibility such as the police and the courts,” the rights organizations said.
The GHRA stated that Guyana’s record on equal opportunities for women in education is on par with the rest of the Caribbean. The statement pointed out that in recent years young women and girls have dominated and almost monopolized prizes for academic excellence. “Although for the most part males still shape and dominate the culture of professions, some individual females have even reached the pinnacle of their profession. This gradual ‘feminizing’ of the professions is the bright side of the women’s rights coin. The other side, dramatically tarnishing the advances, is dominated by a pandemic of violence against women, from which females of any class, status, educational achievement, ethnic background, religious or political affiliation are immune,” the GHRA said.
Weekly basis
The organization stated that on a weekly basis the society is confronted either with a maternal death in circumstances which suggest professional negligence, or murder of women with extreme violence by current or former partners, often aggravated by alcohol or narcotic drugs. “These are the violence related deaths which can be enumerated as statistics. In addition, reports of excessive beating of women by partners and by bandits during the course of robberies, are so frequent as to suggest a level of hostility towards women, festering just below the surface which require only trivial provocation to erupt,” the statement said.
“The belief that education, a good job and a career will ring-fence women against violence is only true when certain other things are in place. Particular attention must be paid to the hazards to women’s safety and physical integrity rooted in backward cultural ideas and practices: firstly, subordination of the woman to her husband and his family; secondly, the persistent institutional subordination of women in all of Guyana’s major religious faiths – all proclamations to the contrary notwithstanding; and thirdly, the rampant commercializing of sex in advertising, whether for goods, services, entertainment or sports which renders young women and girls particularly vulnerable to sexually-instigated violence,” the GHRA asserted.
It declared that no single formula or magic remedy can deal with a problem which has developed over centuries, but effective strategies can be devised to address different manifestations. “Maternal deaths, for example, are a form of institutional violence against women which can be eliminated if sufficient political will can be brought to bear. Females in the medical, nursing and related professions are, as indicated above, now sufficiently numerous to effectively mobilize their energies to demand that maternal deaths be assigned the priority and resources they merit,” the statement said.
It added that similarly, the “insipid” application of the Domestic Violence Act, particularly the provisions offering protection to victims, could be invigorated if women legal practitioners made it a priority. “Since the State has little role to play in the day-to-day administration of justice, the fear of victimization is minimal. A specific example would be insistence that Section 18 (1) of the Domestic Violence Act requiring that hearings be held in camera be applied; another example is to change Section 20 to the effect that a complaint … be heard within forty-eight hours or immediately if the gravity requires it, rather than the current seven days – during which time the victim has no protection from anyone and may be dead by the time the hearing occurs,” the rights body asserted.
“The general principle should be promoted that when numbers of women in professions (legal, medical, teaching, social work, police women, etcetera) reach a threshold they should demand all necessary measures to ensure respect for the dignity of women,” it added.
With respect to alcohol, the statement said that the single most effective protection against female violence would be to render access to alcohol far more expensive and difficult to obtain. “Alcoholism is now a public health hazard in Guyana and suitably rigorous measures are required. Rigorous and restricted licensing, heavy taxes and shorter hours for public consumption are the most obvious steps to be taken,” the GHRA declared.
The organization also said that religious influence on sustaining the subordinate role of women in families cannot be under-estimated. “In recent years, global religious organizations have had to publicly apologise for the amount of sexual abuse of children perpetrated by religious leaders in positions of trust in past decades. Apologies on a similar scale from all organized religions over their contribution to the suppression and the violence it has fostered against women over the ages would significantly advance protection of women and girl children. On the other hand, admonitions from religious sources without internal institutional reform ring hollow,” the statement said.
Further, it said that the sexualising of culture that brainwashes men of all ages to view young women primarily as sexual targets should be addressed by media owners putting public interest ahead of profit in the advertising they accept and a film and TV censorship board focused on reducing sex and violence.
