At the beginning of this week, the Guyana Police Force held a ceremony to launch five training sessions for officers under the theme, ‘Forging Ahead with Professionalism and Intelligence-led Policing in Collaboration with Stakeholders’. At the end of eight weeks, some of the almost 200 police officers would have completed Station Management and Conversion courses, some will be trained as trainers and while the others are being given the requisite preparation for their work as Newly Promoted Subordinate Officers and part of the Criminal Investigation Department team. The courses were numbered, which indicates that they are ongoing; good for the police. One hopes that this continuity extends to ensuring that officers who were trained a long time ago are consistently given refreshers’ training.
The current session does not include training in applying the Domestic Violence Act, or general awareness of and sensitization to domestic violence, but one hopes that these courses are being constantly taught. While we might not always remember because we tend to refer to them collectively as ‘the police’, members of the GPF are members of our society and communities. The prevalence of domestic violence suggests that there are police officers who are either victims or perpetrators of this crime, while being placed in the position of having to investigate, arrest and bring charges; therefore ongoing training in this area is a must.
There was also no specific mention of training in the use of rape kits and the handling of rape/incest cases. There have been instances where police officers have been accused of rape – the most famous being that of former commissioner Henry Greene, who was never charged. However, others have been charged, including with sexually assaulting underage girls. Apart from training which must encompass the Sexual Offences Act, there is the importance of gathering evidence. According to the 2016 US State Department report on Human Rights Practices in Guyana, for that year, there were 204 reports of rape, but only 36 persons were charged. Added to this is the abysmal rape conviction rate.
Rape is an indictable offence, which means that a preliminary inquiry is often held. However, somewhere between there being enough evidence for charges to be laid and trial there are slips, which lead to cases being thrown out at the trial stage. The most recent was the case of Mahendra Budhan, who was accused of rape of a child under 16, allegedly committed between August 1 and August 31, 2010. His trial ended in a hung jury in January this year.
Moreover, anecdotal evidence suggests that there are many cases of domestic violence, rape and incest that are not being reported because the complainants do not believe they will receive justice or because they or their relatives are approached and offered financial settlements. Unfortunately, in Guyana, rape, carnal knowledge (as underage rape is called), incest and domestic violence are still crimes that draw victim blaming and victim shaming. Hence there tends to be reluctance to make reports. Apart from that, there is a tendency to target women and girls with admonitions to avoid early sex when the reality is that since they are often forced or coerced into it, they really have no choice in the matter.
The situation at Baramita in Region One, where multiple rapes have allegedly been occurring, comes to mind. Some action had been taken, but there is no indication that government has changed its approach to rectifying the disorder in that community despite being told by two non-governmental organisations that what it was doing would not work. Often, the high incidence of pregnancy among underage and teenage indigenous girls is shrugged off as ‘culture’, but the possibility of this correlating with the high incidence of cervical cancer among indigenous women means that prevention action is necessary. Early sex and multiple partners are two risk factors associated with cervical cancer. Two studies—one by Yvette Irving in the late 1990s and one by Penelope Layne, Premini Persaud and Dr Wallis Best Plummer around 2007, found that cervical cancer was prevalent among indigenous women. A recent outreach done by the Cancer Institute of Guyana among the indigenous population found the same thing. Yet, tests such as pap smears and cancer treatment are not available in any of these communities, which only have ad hoc access when teams visit doing research or outreaches. All of which really points to the fact that there is a lot of work that needs to be done as regards the perpetuation of rape and incest – and not just with or by the police.
International Women’s Day messages yesterday sought in upbeat fashion to recognise the achievements of some of our women who have risen to the top in their various fields and rightfully so. But it is time to stop talking around what can and should be done for our women who cannot do the same for want of opportunity, or because of discrimination, or because they are being held back by tragic incidents in the past. As Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said in Faust 1, “Enough words have been exchanged; now at last let me see some deeds!”
