More police support, new safe houses to help bolster domestic violence fight

Jan 08, 2013 News

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The quest to have matters of domestic violence addressed in a more efficient manner may very well require support from ranks of the Police Force who are furnished with professional social services capabilities.

This view was vocalised yesterday by Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Ms Jennifer Webster, when she hosted a press conference to highlight the achievements of last year and the plans for this year for the Social Services Ministry.
According to the Minister, while there are regulations in place to deal with domestic violence, a Domestic Violence Oversight Committee has since been created. It is tasked with making recommendations on how parts of the law should be implemented.
The body may soon have to act on recommendations which have emanated from a number of national conversations on gender-based violence held last year.
“Some of the recommendations coming from that Committee are for us to perhaps look at having an arm of the Police Force that has more professional social services personnel who can address those reports in a more timely manner, and also the length of time it takes for these matters to be investigated,” said the Minister.
She said that there have been recommendations calling for medical reports in such matters to be dealt with entirely by a dedicated department.
In the interim, though, the Minister stressed that domestic violence will remain a criminal offence. Efforts will continually be made to ensure that those guilty of such offences are charged.
However, she noted that there have been calls during national conversations for the review of certain parts of the existing legislation. “Through the Oversight Committee I will certainly take on board the recommendations and have it addressed at the level of the Attorney General.”
Moreover, Minister Webster underscored that there is a possibility that there will be some amendments on the implementations of certain aspects of the existing law.
A total of 17 national conversations were held during the past year addressing the issue of gender-based violence, a move which followed an official launch of the activity last June.  Conversations, in this regard were held in eight administrative Regions (One, Three, Four, Five, Six, Eight, Nine and Ten), with responses being solicited from both adults and youths. It is the expectation of the Minister that consultations in this regard will continue this year. “During the first quarter we hope to conclude conversations in Regions Two and Seven and to have a National Action Plan finalised so that it could be taken to Cabinet, and later it would become a public document,” Minister Webster stated.
Safe House for Region Three
“Given the whole issue of domestic violence, and violence in our society, it is my wish for 2013 that we would have a society where there are less reported cases of violence…I think we all would look forward to something like that,” she added.
However, such an accomplishment could only be realised, she noted, if a collective effort is made towards such a goal. She pointed to the fact that some of the salient issues that were raised during national conversations were that some abused women are still of the view that they have no hope and therefore in many cases opt to return to abusive relationships.  “We have to change that by providing more safe houses for our victims,” said the Minister as she revealed plans for the construction of a safe house in Region Three.
Already there is private funding available for this project, she said.
She added that efforts are being made to expand the services provided by the Ministry to ensure that within the communities “we are able to work with persons who are affected to provide them with anger management (sessions) and to look at a preventative strategy.”
According to the Minister, a number of persons are calling for support in their communities in terms of the establishment of counselling centres.
She said that these represent one of the areas that the Ministry has already been working on in the quest to expand its social services.  This measure could see social services officers mediating in prevailing domestic violence situations in the society.
“This is between two persons and I think trying to help them to resolve their differences is one of the key areas. It is perhaps also important for everyone in the society to understand that domestic violence is not only the Government’s problem; it is a problem that everyone should understand that they must be committed to. If you know of someone who is being abused you should report it.”
The Minister intimated, yesterday, that some of the fatal cases of domestic violence which occurred last year, came as a result of failure to report the matter. Some members of the communities were well aware and did nothing, she added.
Another part of the Ministry’s preventative strategy, the Minister disclosed, is a plan to work along with secondary school teachers so that they could help to identify children within the school system who might already be victims of abuse and violence.

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