HUMANS like to think that we are better than other species, but are we? While violence is the antithesis of civilised behaviour, people continue to engage in such deplorable conduct, particularly in the form of intimate-partner violence by men against women in a home setting, in other words, domestic violence against women.

In August 2018, at the opening of the 20th Biennial Convention of the National Congress of Women, President Granger said, “Unless we take concerted action to eliminate violence against women, we will never remove the scourge of inequality. People will not find it even necessary to consider providing equal access for girlchildren to go to school. We need to deal with this problem of violence against girls and women. It is not easy. It is not just sexual violence, it is physical violence as well. It is chopping and killing, murder…It is the daily subjugation and suppression of women…”

President Granger was, at that time, alluding to one of Guyana’s most prevalent and enduring scourges. In 2017, just last year, the Guyana Police Force (GPF) received 1,787 reports of domestic violence, 482 of those from ‘B’ Division alone; and 306 from ‘A’ Division (which includes Georgetown). Unfortunately, very few of those reports resulted in prosecutions because, according to the Domestic Violence Prevention Centre (DVPC), “Many women make complaints to the police, but do not follow through with prosecution of the perpetrator. In most instances, abused women would attend court and testify that they no longer wish to proceed with the matter; hence, the case is dismissed against the defendant.”

For example, recently, the police had charged a man with assault after he allegedly stabbed his spouse several times with a knife. It was revealed to the court that the man is in the habit of beating the woman. As such, the prosecutor requested that the man be remanded to prison; the request was upheld by Magistrate Leron Daly who expressed concern for the woman’s safety. However, when the man made another court appearance two weeks later, the victim expressed her desire to not proceed with the matter.
The too frequent disastrous results of such failures to follow through on reports is sometimes tragic: in 2017, the GPF reported that 10 women had been killed by the hands of the men who claimed to love them.

More recently, in June 2018, two women were killed. On June 10, the police charged 21-year-old Rick Sewcharran with the murder of his girlfriend, Sasia Adams; and on June 22, Tovonie Simmons, 28, a mother of four, was stabbed to death by her former common-law partner, Imran Lyte.

The reasons for the specific incidents of domestic violence may be numerous, but the underlying problem may be a single issue: many men think that women are their property. President Granger captured that idea – and its result – when he said, “The subordination of women, which still exists in so many societies, has been responsible for depriving countries of the contribution that women can make to national development, to their families and to making societies more humane.”

The United Nations (UN) agrees, in the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women (1993), the UN stated that “Violence against women is a manifestation of historically unequal power relations between men and women, which has led to domination over and discrimination against women by men, and to the prevention of the full advancement of women.”

Sadly, many women remain for too long in abusive relationships. The GPF reports that on average, a woman leaves a relationship after up to 7 to 10 incidents of violence against her. Many women say that they are economically dependent on their partners; they have no other place to go; they are staying because of children; or they don’t want their relationship to fail. In any case, the current situation is untenable, and must be addressed.
Government’s policies of gender equality and empowerment of women have resulted in a number of programmes and initiatives which are intended to result in fewer incidents of domestic abuse. Training of law-enforcement officers, workshops for women, educating men, provision of safe-houses, access to counselling, and passage of legislation are all moves in the right direction. However, still, too many women continue to suffer at the hands of violent men, and it has to be stopped.