AFTER several discussions with the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security, as well as with stakeholder groups, including practising lawyers, a comprehensive network of rules has been completed and will soon form part of Guyana’s Domestic Violence Act.

The disclosure was made by Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, during a recent televised interview on the programme, “Political Scope.”
And he noted that as part of the review, several amendments have also been completed and will allow magistrates “wider latitude” to impose penalties on those who break the law.
“The discussions we held produced an amalgam of legislations which would have been identified over the past years and corrected. This will be promulgated shortly,” he assured.
Nandlall added that among the other amendments to the domestic violence act that have also been completed is a clear definition of the term domestic violence, which is important for those who interpret the law.
“First of all there is no definition for domestic violence in the Act. This legislation looks at international organisations for guidance since they have prepared definitions, and have culled what we considered to be one of the most definite,” he said.
According to him, to date a number of legislations have been passed by Parliament to address existing “lacunas” in the law.
“But we have been able to pass a number of legislation, some for example, that directly addressed some lacunas in the law for a long time and I specifically recall, bringing the spouse in a common- law union where the other partner has died, bringing that spouse if they were not married, into the intestate law, where only a married wife was recognised,” he said.
Nandlall added, “We had recognised this a few years ago, but this aspect of the law was never changed. So common-law wife though would have satisfied the requirement, would have satisfied the requirement too if that husband died. She did not enjoy such because the intestate law did not recognise her. So that was a substantial piece of amendment.”
The Attorney General has since assured that the Legal Affairs Ministry will continue to do what it can in the interest of protecting vulnerable groups in Guyana.