CCSJ calls on all citizens to respond urgently to the prevalence of domestic/intimate partner violence in T&T. Since domestic violence is not part of God’s plan for us, and since our various faith communities instill in us the need to love our neighbour, it is more than time that we stop sitting on the sidelines as passive bystanders and develop/implement strategies to address this evil which threatens to overwhelm us. We need all hands on deck to promote integral human development and to eliminate this pervasive problem which has serious health, social and economic consequences for our society.
Former National Security Minister, Hon Edmund Dillon stated in Parliament in June 2018 that the Domestic Violence Act 45:56 was being reviewed/amended and that an update would be provided by September 2018. We await this update as to how our legislature proposes to address the various forms of domestic violence against our women e.g. physical, sexual, emotional/psychological, and financial. We hope that the Government will adopt the 10 legislative and policy amendments to the Act as proposed by the Equal Opportunity Commission in November 2017 – including mandatory programmes for victims and perpetrators.
However, legislation is not all that is needed. Last year 52 women were murdered, 43 of them in domestic violence incidences. There are thousands of applications for protection orders each year. What comfort is there for those affected when, having obtained these orders, they often are breached? We need effective network of support systems to save our women. Let us also remember that men also experience domestic violence and need our help.
What are we doing with the data/recommendations from the 2017 National Women’s Health Survey for T&T? inter alia, this 183 page report highlights some risk factors, common responses, and coping mechanisms, and factors that preclude women from accessing help. How can the recommendations inform the way forward in T&T?
CCSJ offers some other strategies that can be adopted:
– Parenting programmes – including online programmes that address this issue;
– Developing programmes – nationally, in educational institutions – in the curriculum, and at parish/community level – to empower women/men/boys/girls and to address the root causes of Domestic violence e.g. the way in which we are socialising our boys and girls;
– Increased co-ordination within and between Government ministries and non-state agencies;
– Improvements in the criminal justice system;
– Media advocacy aimed at eliminating DV. As UNICEF states, the media “plays a pivotal role in both influencing and changing social norms and behaviour;”
– See Pastoral Letters, such as the one from the US Bishops entitled: When I call for help
Let us redouble our efforts to promote the dignity of each woman/girl/boy/man and to protect their lives. Every life matters – including the perpetrators who need treatment/rehabilitation.
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