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Survivor-centred approaches mean listening and understanding
Dear Editor,
Kaieteur News has reported (15 Oct, 2025) that the Guyana State has punished a survivor of intimate partner violence. The woman from Berbice made a request to the State, represented by police and magistrate, to warn the abuser.
This request is familiar to many law enforcement officers in Guyana and around the world, because of the cultural, social, economic factors which trap many women and others in abusive situations. Some survivors of intimate partner violence want the violence and abuse to stop, not necessarily to jail the abusers. Survivor-centred approaches mean listening and understanding.
All of the people – family members, friends, counsellors, advocates, social workers, police, magistrates who work with survivors of intimate partner violence are supposed to understand how entrapment works, and have empathy and not frustration when survivors do not want ‘jail’ for the abusers.
The Domestic Violence Act in 1996, and now the Family Violence Act in 2024 is supposed to be around a system of Protection Orders and other orders, ways of doing ‘warnings’. There are mechanisms for gazetted social workers and police to also apply for the Protection Orders. The State should be able to use evidence other than the testimony of survivors to deal with criminal charges.
Many empathetic magistrates over the years have listened to the needs of survivors who do not want to press charges. These magistrates have referred the survivors, women mostly, to organisations like Red Thread and Help & Shelter. The Ministry of Human Services now has a system of advocates in place in some parts of Guyana. So why didn’t the State of Guyana – police, judiciary, Ministry of Human Services listen to the survivor and discuss the options under the Family Violence Act?
Since empathy cannot be legislated, is it time for the Judiciary to enforce guidelines so that when Magistrates and police and other duty bearers feel ‘their time is being wasted’, that they follow instructions and do the referrals instead of punishing the survivors ?
The Magistrates and police, using the Family Violence Act of 2024, can also refer the many abusive men they have to deal with to the Ministry of Human Services’ BRAVE programme and Men’s Affairs Bureau; or Men on Mission for lessons on accountability and healing so they can be decent human beings. We will not be eliminating intimate partner violence and other forms of gender-based violence by punishing survivors who do not want to press charges, and by not using the opportunities to ensure that abusive men and others become accountable for their behavior.
Yours sincerely,
Vidyaratha Kissoon
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