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Justice system is class-driven and against the poor and powerless

Mar 31, 2016 Letters

Dear Editor,
We the undersigned call on the President, the Ministers of Public Security, the Sexual Violence Unit of the Ministry of Social Protection, the Attorney General & Minister of Legal Affairs,the Chancellor of the Judiciary,the Commissioner of Police, the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Director of the Childcare & Protection Agency to ensure that in addressing the huge backlog of court cases priority is given to the large number of children and adolescent survivors of sexual offences who frequently spend up to 7 years awaiting trial of the perpetrators.
We call on those responsible to immediately:
· Release the number of pending child sexual offences cases that fall under the old legislation governing sexual offences
· Release the number of pending child sexual offences cases that fall under the Sexual Offences Act(SOA) of 2010
· Release number of child sexual offence reports received by the Police Force for investigation since enactment of the SOA
· Release the number of child sexual offences cases in which charges have been instituted by the police after investigation since enactment of the SOA
· Release the number of SOA cases that have been taken to court
· Release the number of SOA cases that have been taken to court that have resulted in convictions
While we welcome the COI investigation into the deaths of 17 inmates of the Georgetown prison, we feel that the entire justice system, including access to justice, is broken and favours the wealthy, the well – politically and otherwise –connected and those in positions of power and authority over the least powerful and most vulnerable, such as child sexual offences complainants who are usually the last to be afforded any priority in this system. Since rape and all other sexual offences are bailable, the majority of offenders tend to be at liberty rather than on remand.
If the APNU+AFC government is serious and genuine about freedom of information, the figures called for above must be released. If none of the above ministries or agencies are able to supply this information, then systems must immediately put in place for them to be able to do so. We know this information is on record, is essential to the APNU+AFC government fulfilling its commitment to ensure that the SOA is fully implemented and is critical to an assessment of the justice system in relation to child sexual offences.
Finally, we remind the APNU+AFC government that they are in violation of the Sexual Offences Actfor having failed to convene the Sexual Offences Inter Agency Task Force, which is mandated by the Act to develop and implement  a national plan for the prevention of sexual violence.
Child survivors of sexual offences have already waited 11 months for the government to make good its commitments. How much longer must they and future child survivors have to wait?
Danuta Radzik & Josephine Whitehead for Help & Shelter
Karen De Souza & Wintress White for Red Thread
Pat Sheerattan & Renuka Anandjit for Guyana Responsible Parenthood Association

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