Webster, Greene advocate  more drastic action, punishment
HUMAN Services and Social Security Minister Jenifer Webster is confident that the legislative framework designed to address the rights, care and protection of children is adequate and workable. But she acknowledged the need for police ranks investigating molestation, rape and other offences committed on children, to be properly trained and be more knowledgeable of the issues involved and the laws governing them.
Speaking on the National Communications Network (NCN) Channel 11 television, last Sunday morning, Ms. Webster said this is clearly an area of concern for her ministry.
According to her, there are some loopholes in the law that require amendments to which the ministry is paying close attention.
She said prosecution is one of the main issues and insisted:”We have to find ways to ensure that we deal with perpetrators in more drastic ways, because there are laws to protect women and children and these must be upheld and enforced.”
Webster, however, mentioned the rights of accusers which should be taken into consideration and reiterated that the ministry plans to re-launch the domestic violence campaign by the end of the first quarter in 2012.
She added that her ministry is the place where children and women come for protection from abusers and they will be provided with the services it has been established to provide.
Director of the Child Care and Protection Agency (CC&PA), Ms. Ann Greene, who was also part of the discussion panel with Minister Webster, expressed disappointment that the perception of a large section of the Guyana Police Force (GPF)is, that molestation and rape of a child are bailable offences.
Greene said investigating officers seem to be operating under the notion that perpetrators must be released after the 72 hours detention period and declared that misinterpretation and misrepresentation of the law, with miscarriage of justice and denial of it, could be used as some of the words to secure the granting of bail to persons accused of violating the rights of children.
Certain conditions
“When we look at the Sexual Offences Act, there is nothing within that[which] says it is a bailable offence. It says that whenever bail is being considered, there are certain conditions that must be there. And we are taking into consideration that the definition of rape has been redefined. In the old Act, rape had to do with the penis and now it goes beyond that. Since the new Act was signed into law, no one has ever been charged with rape of a child and this is happening. We have children in our protection who said that they have been raped,” she explained.
Greene said her view is that convictions for rape are punishable by life in prison while sexual assault attracts a fine of one million dollars and five months imprisonment. She said, what has been happening is that persons are being charged with a sexual misdemeanour when the charge should actually be rape.
The CC&PA Director said among the concerns expected to be taken into consideration, when charging an accused child offender, are the health and safety of the victims, their families and that of the accused and his or her family.
Greene said, what she sometimes sees as misjudgment by investigating officers is the setting of very high bail for persons who cannot afford it while those with resources are granted pre-trial liberty on small sums, and allowed to walk free until they are scheduled to appear in court.
She is also of the opinion that, in the cases of child molestation and rape, bail should not be granted once trial proceedings are still ongoing. She, passionately, explained that the wheels of justice turn too slowly in Guyana, especially as it relates to children and cited the lengthy investigations, when an accused appears in court, the trial and the reappearances among the bugbears.
Greene pointed to instances where persons are still languishing in jail because of the slothfulness of cases relating to her agency.
She said this affects the children concerned, since most of them, as a result of pending cases are kept in protective custody and end up staying there even longer because of the duration of court proceedings.
Greene lamented that, where an accused is placed on bail, the ministry has to make every effort to ensure that child victims are not intimidated and or made to suffer further because accusers have to face the law.