Dear Editor,
Thank you for publishing our previous letter on our feedback on the draft Sexual Offences Amendment Bill 2024. In our consideration of the proposed amendments, we recognised that there are several parts of the current legislation which are not adequately enforced.
We are deeply concerned about the enforcement of the offence – Obstruction of prosecution section 20. (1) SOA 2010 which says that any person who prevents a child from giving a statement to the police or prevents a child from giving admissible evidence in any way for a paper committal or prevents a child from testifying in a court of law commits an offence and can be sentenced to 5 years imprisonment and fined 1 million dollars. Too many sexual offences committed particularly against children go unreported and are never prosecuted even when offenders are known.
Children must not be allowed to suffer the trauma of sexual abuse without access to psycho-social assistance and justice due to their positions of vulnerability and reliance on adults for basic needs including offending adults who can be caregivers, family members or other close and trusted family friends. There is a need for an ongoing awareness campaign on this sexual offence and other offences so ignorance against prosecution of such offences is known.
The Sexual Offences Act (SOA) Part IX Prevention, mandates the establishment of a National Task Force for the Prevention of Sexual Offences (NTFPSV). The duties include the development and implementation of a national plan of action for the prevention of sexual violence. Even though a new NTFPSV was appointed when the present Government came into office in 2020, no national plan for the prevention of sexual violence has been disseminated publicly, neither has there been, as far as we know, policies established to enable the Government to work with NGOs, FBOs, CBOs and other elements of civil society to prevent sexual violence. The NTFPSV has a total of 15 duties and responsibilities and there is no public information or transparency about how the NTFPSV carries out its responsibilities and monitors its plans.
Additionally, even though the SOA says that representatives from non-governmental organizations are to be part of the NTFPSV, there is only one NGO – Help & Shelter that actively works on the prevention on sexual violence which is represented on the NTFPSV. We call for the inclusion on the Task Force of other NGOS and community groups who are actively working on the prevention of sexual and gender-based violence.
Of significance is Section IX Prevention 3 (j) the “need to focus special attention on the issues of sexual violence in remote areas, including access to police support and medical attention.” And (n) “in general, ensure acceptable and uniform treatment of all sexual offence matters”. It is well known that there are inadequate support services for survivors of sexual offences, especially in Indigenous interior locations where such facilities are less available and there are long delays in cases reaching the court. There are also problems of translation between Indigenous languages and English. The delays sometimes result in survivors opting to drop out of legal redress, refusing to testify, as well as accepting some kind of compensations from sexual offence perpetrators for their silence.
On April 25, 2024, a delegation of indigenous leaders travelled to Georgetown for the following reasons “to expose the growing prevalence gender-based violence with a focus also on child sexual violence, rape and teenage pregnancy in their own communities and districts and, generally, in the hinterland regions. Their concerns include incidents of impunity where officials and figures of authority are predators and perpetrators of such acts and who get away with them because of political, social and economic power, protection and corruption. The Delegation reported on the lack of access to justice and the very few services, or none at all, that are available in Indigenous communities – hence the low level of counselling, court support, lawyers and related resources – resulting in equally low levels of successful prosecutions. Also of deep concern was the lack of knowledge and understanding of the laws and protections and remedies provided for and guaranteed under Guyana’s Constitution and Laws.”
SOA Section 89(2) on ‘Prevention’ states that “Data shall include, but shall not be limited to, number of reports to the police, number of arrests, prosecutions and successful convictions, gender and age of victims or complainants, geographical locations where offences are alleged to have happened, number of persons seeking medical care, types of injuries received by victims or complainants, relationship of victim or complainant to accused, number of matters withdrawn from Court and number of matters where complainants chose not to proceed further.” This requirement of the Sexual Offences Act is not in effect as there is no open data available to citizens, especially those who want to contribute to the prevention efforts.
This section of the SOA on Prevention was added, one must assume, to make these articles and sections enforceable. As such Guyana should not only be collecting but also publicly disseminating data on sexual violence, domestic violence and femicides as recommended in CEDAW’s 2017 recommendation (#35). Moreover, the Second Hemispheric Report on the Implementation of the Belem do Para Convention MESECVI-CEVI (2012) also recommended collecting and making public information disaggregated by sex, age, civil status and geographic location, prosecutions and convictions on VAW and femicides, including evaluating the effectiveness of measures established to prevent, punish and eliminate these crimes.
We are also disappointed over the restricted consultations held prior to SOA amendments being disseminated which left out many NGOs and other women and child rights defenders who work actively in this area and have a wealth of knowledge of challenges to the enforcement of SOA 2010. We expect the Parliament to address the implementation of the Sexual Offences Act during their deliberations on the Amendments and that there will be action taken to improve the implementation.
Sincerely,
Red Thread Guyana
Indigenous Delegation against Domestic and Sexual Violence
Danuta Radzik
Vanda Radzik
Vidyaratha Kissoon
