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Eradicating domestic violence requires equality, respect for women, other minorities – President Granger
“It will take time to undo decades of a culture of criminal violence. The removal of inequalities, both in the home and in the state is a start.”
President David Granger has said that the reduction and eventual eradication of Guyana’s infamy of domestic
President David Granger
violence requires a sincere and serious approach to equality and respect for women, girls and minorities.
The Head of State made this assertion at the opening ceremony of a two-day seminar on Domestic Violence organized by the Supreme Court and the Commonwealth Magistrates and Judges Association.
The seminar which is ongoing at the Marriott Hotel, in Kingston is an initiative of Chancellor of the Judiciary, Justice Carl Singh.
President Granger told the gathering which included high ranking judicial officers from the Commonwealth that while it will take time to undo decades of a culture of criminal violence, the removal of inequalities, both in the home and in the state, is a start.
“It is a prerequisite for happy homes and a gentler Guyana.”
In the detailed statement to the participants, the President said that domestic violence is a result of “a complex interplay of cultural, psychological and social factors which have combined to create an imbalance of power between parties in a relationship.”
This imbalance, he said, is what can lead to domination and abuse is at the root of domestic violence.
The President said that Guyanese, a generation ago, may still have regarded domestic violence as a private matter.
“A man hitting his wife was considered a ‘family affair.’ A parent or teacher whipping a child – giving ‘licks’ –was the conventional, even commendable, form of correction. School fights were considered a regular part of the curriculum and dismissed with a comment that “boys will be boys.”
However, through time, Granger noted that the incidence of violence have degenerated into an epidemic.
Guyanese are experiencing the ‘secondary impact’ of surviving in homes, attending schools and growing up in communities where criminal violence persists or was recently prevalent.
A section of the gathering at the seminar on Domestic Violence at the Marriot Hotel, Kingston, Georgetown yesterday.
“The most deadly are usually characterised by arson, execution – murders, murder-suicides, rape-murders, massacres, mutilation and torture, even within families, households and villages,” the President said.
President Granger believes that the crime wave of the early 2000s, uninvestigated murders/bloody massacres and narco-trade all played a part in the escalation of violence.
The Guyana Police Force reported that, during the 3,651 days of the decade 2005-2014, it received 39,566 reports of domestic violence.
Between 2000 and 2009 – Guyana witnessed the most intense and sustained wave of criminal violence since independence. There were 1,431 murders during that decade, more than at any other similar period in the modern history of Guyana.
The President noted, “The scars of the ‘troubles’ are still visible…These crimes brought an unprecedented wave of criminal violence into this country during the first decade of this century.”
“Some communities — at Bartica, Buxton and Kingston —have become so unsettled by the violence that they erected monuments to the victims.”
The Head of State underscored that the eradication of domestic violence must start with an investigation into causation.
“It matters little how many laws are enacted; the core problem will not be solved unless the core causes of domestic violence are understood.”
He noted that Guyana has promulgated a raft of laws aimed at deterring domestic violence, punishing its perpetrators and protecting victims.
These laws include the Domestic Violence Act, the Sexual Offenses Act, the Prevention of Crimes Act, the Evidence Act and the Criminal (Procedures) Act.
He surmised that the law has limitations; the law cannot deal with the impact of violence. The law cannot rebuild shattered lives and broken homes.
“Laws can punish. They cannot, without an examination of the causes of the crimes, eradicate the scourge of criminal violence and, its secondary outcome, domestic violence. Legislation is essential. Explanations however, are needed, also.”
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