Domestic violence murders

Feb 09, 2025 Letters

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Dear Editor,

Between January 30th and January 31st, a 33-yr-old woman and a 16-yr-old girl were murdered by their intimate partners while a week before another woman was murdered. These murders all occurred despite a reported 33% reduction in domestic violence murders reported by Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum and Minister of Human Services for 2024.

The brutality of these murders and all domestic violence murders are shocking, violent, traumatizing gender-based crimes affecting women predominately and unacceptable. They leave in their wake grieving and traumatized children, family members, Guyanese communities with intergenerational impacts and consequences to the society as a whole.

It is well known that Guyana has one of the highest levels of domestic violence in the world, which according to The Guyana’s Women’s Health and Life Experiences Survey (GWHLES) (2018) 55% or more than one out of every two Guyanese women experience some form of gender-based violence. A truly alarming statistics, but what is as alarming is the continuing absence of adequate and systematic information on levels of reported domestic violence annually in the face of these high levels. This cannot continue to be an accepted oversight but points to a deliberate policy to restrict this information.

We know that the Guyana Police Force for decades are required to document every reported incident of domestic violence at police stations and take actions to protect victims and survivors. Therefore, there is absolutely no reason why this data is not available and disseminated unless deliberately restricted.

As far back as 2010, the National Crime Observatory was launched by the Ministry of Home Affairs as a vital management tool for collecting and disseminating comprehensive up to date crime information to assist law enforcement. The Integrated Crime Information System (ICIS) was also touted at the same time as a system which would allow ranks to record reports electronically as opposed to written reports.

Guyana should not only be collecting but also publicly disseminating this information as recommended by CEDAW in its 2017 recommendation (#35). That recommendation specifically outlined the duty of States to establish a system to regularly collect, analyse and publish statistical data on all forms of violence including number of complaints, prosecutions, convictions, reparations, protection orders etc. Additionally, the Second Hemispheric Report on the Implementation of the Belem do Para Convention MESECVI-CEVI (2012) also recommended collecting and making public this information disaggregated by sex, age, civil status and geographic location, prosecutions and convictions, femicides, including evaluating the effectiveness of measures established to prevent, punish and eliminate these crimes.

The Sexual Offences Act Section 89(2)  Prevention  states that “ Data shall include, number of reports to the police, number of arrests, prosecutions and successful convictions, gender and age of victims or complainants, geographical locations where offences are alleged to have happened, number of persons seeking medical care, types of injuries received by victims or complainants, relationship of victim or complainant to accused, number of matters withdrawn from Court and number of matters where complainants chose not to proceed further.” This requirement of the Sexual Offences Act 2010 is not in effect.

We also know that the Domestic Violence Act, now repealed, was being used by many women successfully to get protection and other orders for their safety through magistrate courts, but again there is no information on number of DVA cases filed in magistrate courts across Guyana and protection orders granted for the protection of survivors. This is essential information as protection orders are the fastest and potentially easiest type of protection available to domestic violence survivors and are compatible with at the same time pursuing domestic violence criminal charges, which take a longer time to be heard. Both measures are now incorporated into the Family Violence Act 2024.

However, if we look at the little information that is available, we see that for 2024, the 914-hotline number only received 3% of domestic violence calls according to the Minister of Human Services. So, while this is no doubt a useful service, it is not being utilized by the majority of persons experiencing domestic violence. No information was shared on the number of domestic violence cases reported to the police or other State agencies for 2024, neither was there any information shared on number and type of cases the Community Advocate Network, CAN assisted with and in which region or community and outcomes of such cases. There have been numerous police training programmes, the most recent ones were COP SQUAD programme which trained more than 1,000 police officers in gender related issues and domestic violence in 2023.

Hope and Justice centres have also been set up at Lusignan and Vergenoegen which offer counselling and legal and health services for gender-based violence besides other issues. What is missing is monitoring and evaluations of these programmes and others to ensure that they are meeting the needs of survivors accessing these programmes and Guyanese in general and their impact on the reduction and eradication of all forms of gender-based violence including domestic violence.  This failure to systematically collect data, make it publicly accessible, and utilize this empirical evidence to not only inform but also implement targeted actions for the prevention, protection from and prosecution of VAW, domestic violence, and SGBV in Guyana, is hampering Guyana’s ability to address the epidemic of VAW, and femicides as is the sidelining of too many NGOs in Guyana who have been at the forefront of offering services and advocating for the rights of survivors of sexual and gender-based violence for years.

Yours truly,

Danuta Radzik

(Domestic violence murders)

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• Chief Wendell Blanhum, Guyanese women, Health and Life Experiences Survey, Minister of Human Services

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