The state must not further victimise women who are victims of violence

Press statement: Red Thread and Help & Shelter, Thursday, December 10, 2009

Stabroek News of 9 December, 2009 carried the story of a magistrate granting bail of $30,000 to a woman who had been raped and then attempted suicide. The woman, who is a mother of six children, said she had reported the rape to the police station on the day it occurred and even though the police promised to deal with the matter they did not. Traumatised and emotionally distraught by this double victimisation, the woman said, she drank poison. The police, adding further insult to the two injuries already inflicted on the woman, then proceeded to charge her with attempted suicide.

Members of the Guyana Police Force, who are supposed to have been trained to understand the trauma felt by survivors of violence, should be applying greater sensitivity in these cases. Their behaviour in this particular case is in total opposition to what the Ministry of Health has said about extending services to address the growing problem of suicide and attempted suicide. The message now is, make sure you kill yourself because if you survive, instead of mental health support and care the police will charge you.

The perversity in the Guyana Police Force appears to extend to the judiciary, which seems bent on prosecuting women who are struggling to survive assaults against them. There are reports in the Guyana Times of 17 October, 2009 and Kaieteur News of 10 November, 2009 of a magistrate fining women who asked that charges in domestic violence cases be dropped. There are other reports from other courts of similar fines on women.

It would appear that in Guyana our justice system is now in the business of re-victimising victims and survivors of gender-based violence instead of putting into place laws to prevent such violations of the human rights of women and children and services to support victims/survivors. In the cases mentioned above, in spite of the intent of laws and the various declarations of zero tolerance for violence against women, they are being treated in ways that do not take into account the social conditions they face.

On December 10, 2009, the end of this year’s 16 days of activism against violence against women, we continue to witness the failure of the state to ensure that justice is served to women who have been violated.