Bahamas women’s groups unite against gender-based violence
Enough is enough. We demand the promised additional courts and resources to urgently address the ongoing and increasing violence against women and children.
This call is being made in the wake of multiple grievous incidents of violence against women in recent months and the notably long delays in having the matters reach finality in the courts.
The most recent incidents over the past few months include:
- The much-publicized horrific act against young Bella Walker;
- The young woman who was dragged into the street and beaten while holding her infant, stabbed and then rolled over by a car allegedly driven by the infant’s father;
- The woman was dragged out of her car, beaten and kicked in the head;
- The young woman who was shot while nursing her baby;
- A married mother of three lost sight in her right eye due to domestic violence.
All of these savage reported acts have made women fearful and greatly distressed about the safety of women and children, including those who are subject to a higher degree of vulnerability and risk and who live with disabilities.
Women’s groups are calling for remediation efforts to address this alarming state of affairs, from:
- Legislation to support a gender-based violence authority to ensure that gender-based violence issues are inclusively and comprehensively addressed on a full-time basis;
- The much-needed accessible shelters for the growing number of abused women and children who need an immediate change of environment in the face of life-threatening violence.
Denial of justice
This group notes, however, that the most egregious factor in the denial of justice is the unacceptably slow movement to final judicial redress.
All of the inter-related systems — from arrest to trial — are tailored to the fantasy of a quaint fishing village of long bygone age. Those systems, procedures and processes, which can be inequitable, have not kept pace with the tools and creativity required to deal, on time, with the increased volume and savagery of crimes now being experienced. This has resulted in too many citizens being excluded from protections that should be available in law.
This reality has often resulted in complaints and cases being abandoned, no justice received by the victims or the upholding of vital and civilised community standards.
Remove roadblocks and counterproductive historic practices
Savagery is being embraced as an acceptable state of affairs due to the impotence of the system in delivering completed hearings in a reasonably timely manner.
Incremental change, public relations sessions, insubstantial chats about insubstantial differences and power points will no longer do.
As citizens, we are losing faith in the police, the judiciary and legislature, which are not moving aggressively enough to remove the roadblocks and historic practices, which fails to prioritise the needs of women and our children.
Prioritising women and our children
We want to see the enactment of a victim’s bill of rights so that there is clarity in the rights, obligations and expectations of all relevant parties. We also wish to see the general requirement for mandatory reporting of all forms of gender-based violence.
We applaud Prime Minister Philip Davis for his recent public comments about marital rape, which stated that “rape is rape”.
We are grateful for his administration's support to put legislative changes to reflect this vocal support. We are encouraged that this assurance has also been made by Michael C. Pintard, leader of the opposition.
Additionally, we have been heartened by the recent comments of Chief Justice Sir Brian Moree, as he informed the public about the search for suitable sites to establish a sexual offences court.
We urge the prime minister, chief justice, commissioner of police, attorney general and director of public prosecutions to work expeditiously to achieve these goals, as given current statistics, the vulnerability, rights and lives of women and girls in The Bahamas are now at the highest levels of risk in the region and around the world.
The Bahamas’ commitments to the world
The Bahamas ratified the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in 1993, the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence Against Women in 1995; The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in 1991 and Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) in 2015.
Under these conventions, the state party, i.e., the government, the legislators, and agents of the state, i.e., law enforcement officers, have a duty to prevent gender-based violence and to protect women and girls from such violence whether it is in the home, place of employment, on the street or any public place.
The state party, i.e. The Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is also legally obligated to provide victims of gender-based violence access to justice and effective remedies such as shelters and psycho-social services. Gender-based violence includes but is not limited to domestic violence, sexual violence and sexual harassment.
The call to get it done
We call on all principle stakeholders responsible for the carriage of justice, from start to finish, to inform the public as to whether the recently held conclave resulted in the creation of an effective and efficient system that serves the public and is worthy of our women and children because what we currently have, this present system, is assaulting and diminishing us all — body, mind and spirit and we are dying in the process.
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