RED THREAD/HELP & SHELTER :International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women 2005

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IS AS LARGE A THREAT TO SURVIVAL IN GUYANA AS OTHER VIOLENCE

A decade and a half ago, a group of Guyanese called on the then President to recognize violence against women and girls as a national crisis demanding the same attention as other grave threats to the survival of the Guyanese people. Across the years, similar calls have been issued to political parties, all without adequate response.

For us the reason is very clear: women and the men who support women’s rights do not organize themselves into a constituency that politicians must heed. It is no accident that in 2005, the reported number of women brutally murdered or maimed by men who were supposed to love them increased over 2004. Except for a few media reporters and editors, our national silence and inaction persist although increasingly, the victims include a significant number of young women, some of them still in their teens!

We believe that the following steps would contribute to reversing this trend:

Reform of sexual offences legislation after meaningful public consultations the findings of which are respected by being used to guide the reform.
Action by the Commissioner of Police to fulfill the commitment by the Guyana Police Force to establish Domestic Violence and Child Abuse Units in the Force, with public monitoring.

On International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women 2005, Red Thread and Help and Shelter pledge that in the year ahead – an election year – we will act with determination to ensure that domestic violence and other issues wrongly marginalised as “women’s issues” are not allowed to remain off the national agenda.