Coalition to stamp out sexual violence against children continues

May 28, 2009 News

“We want the Law, Regulations and supporting institutions to deal with sexual violence against children now” is the call from Non-Governmental organizations Help and Shelter and Red Thread as thy gear to stage yet another picketing exercise out side of the office of the President today.

At this time when at least once per week domestic violence claims the life of a woman, the coalition says they are continuing to step up their organizing against violence against women but are determined that the children are not to be forgotten.

When asked why the continued picketing about sexual violence against children each Thursday by the Red Thread and the Help and Shelter organizations, they pointed to more than 37 headlines from this Publication and Stabroek News between January and April 2009.

The 37 cases of sexual violence against children included headlines such as “68 year old in police custody for molesting toddlers, Girl raped by bogus probation officer, Photographer charged with fondling girl 10 yrs, JP and woman held for sexually abusing 13-yr-old girl, Man charged for indecent assault of step daughter, Police probing report of schoolgirl drugged; raped.”

They note: amidst talk that sexual offenses legislation is shortly to go before Parliament we will continue to picket to ‘hold the Parliament’s feet to the fire, as we continue to raise awareness.

The coalition expressed the desire for government and opposition to start equating the protection of children from sexual violence with other priorities such as ‘security and national issues.’”

It could replace these also say Karen Desouza Coordinator Red Thread.

Their main aim of picketing is to warn all stakeholders of the justice system that they (the Coalition) “will be monitoring their actions to ensure that they use the new legislation for the protection of children far better than they have used what is available to them under the present legislation.”

They listed those as being inclusive of “the lawyers, women and men, whom they say “re-victimize” child victims of sexual violence in the name of protecting the rights of their clients.

As a collective and as separate groups, they categorically states that “The children have not been receiving justice in the courts.”

According to a 2005 GHRA report between 2000 and 2004, only three of 31 statutory rape cases were tried in the High Court, and none ended in conviction. The conviction rate in statutory rape cases in that period was zero.

In addition to the newspaper reports compiled by Red Thread, the information in the public domain, which comes either from Help & Shelter or the Guyana Human Rights Association, was also brought to the fore.

However the group states that despite the information being in the public domain, the horror that it describes appears not to have sunk into most people’s minds.

Facts

Among those seeking support from Help & Shelter between November 2004 and August 2008 the victims were as young as 2 years old while the percentage of all cases falling below the age of 18 was 47 percent.

43 percent of the female victims were age 6 to 17-years-old, while 54 percent of male victims were mostly aged 6 to 11 years old. Repeated reports came from girls and boys as young as six years old.

Among girls in a 2007 GHRA report 43 percent represented those aged 12-16 years old and they were listed as most vulnerable to sexual assaults.

Those between 1-12 years constituted the second most vulnerable age group amounting to 26 percent while the repeat reports were for youths aged between one and 12 years olds.

According to the GHRA report 69 percent of victims of sexual violence were 16 or below.

The group posits that violence was not mainly from strangers as the perpetrators were mainly men close to the children.

In the Help and Shelter report, 20 percent of cases of rape and other forms of sexual violence involved biological or stepfathers, as was the case from neighbours while seven percent were uncles and 6 percent were family friends.

These findings match the experience of other groups working with child victims of sexual violence from other NGO and international organizations.

Beyond Politics

Beyond the government institutions, the group says their picketing is also aimed at addressing those outside of Parliament and the judiciary, which include “the women and men and groups and individuals who think they have no direct responsibility for protection of our children against sexual violence.”

They say they want officials to understand that for the legislation to be effective they must recognize and honour their responsibilities.

Parent who don’t believe their children when they complain of being abused who need to see that they are inflicting another form of abuse on their children are also targeted by the group Desouza said.

“Decent people” who without thought, dismiss allegations that their decent friends, colleagues and acquaintances have perpetrated sexual violence against children, who must stop acting as accomplices to the crimes of their social equals while protesting loudly against the crimes of poor people.

Also singled out by the Coalition are other civic and religious organizations that they say must speak and act against sexual violence against children with the same passion they find for the issues affecting their adult constituents.

The group’s argument is that Guyanese are divided on almost every issue however on this front they say it is imperative that all must unite in defence of our children against the barbarity of sexual violence.

(Mondale Smith)