THE Supreme Court of Guyana last Friday in collaboration with the UN opened a two-day workshop on Domestic Violence for the benefit of magistrates and front-line court service providers.

Declaring open the workshop Acting Chancellor of the Judiciary, Justice Carl Singh, said: “This workshop is an effort to develop standard practices among court personnel and other service providers countrywide, from the filing to the hearing of DV matters.
“With domestic violence on the increase in our dear land of Guyana, it is imperative that we all — being links in the chain of services – must be able to respond not only quickly, but appropriately to enable proper, timely and competent judicial intervention.”

The objectives of the workshop were:
* To develop standard practice in the implementation of the Domestic Violence Act among court personnel countrywide.
* To equip front-line court service-providers with information to ensure a more comprehensive response in addressing the needs of domestic violence complainants
* To strengthen the capacity of the Magistracy to respond in a timely, transparent and effective manner in domestic violence matters; and
* To help Clerks of Court and Social Workers prioritize cases that require urgent intervention to ensure more systemic support for victims who come to court.

The workshop facilitators  were Justice Roxanne George, a judge in the Supreme Court of Guyana; Ms. Priya Beharry, Chief Magistrate; Mr. A. Wilson, a magistrate; Ms. A. Green, Director of the Child Care & Protection Agency; and Ms. K. De Souza, National Coordinator of the Red Thread organisation.

This was the second workshop to be held on issues relating to domestic violence.