SEXUAL violence in Guyana is at crisis level. In 2020, the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) handed down a significant judgment on a child rape sentencing appeal in the matter of Pompey v Director of Public Prosecutions of Guyana (DPP) [2020] CCJ 7 (AJ) GY.

In that decision, the President and Justices of the CCJ noted that in 2019 there were 648 indictable sexual violence cases from Guyana set down for trial in the Magisterial District of Demerara alone.
A deeper analysis of the data revealed by the CCJ recorded that sexual violence cases constituted 54 per cent of the total number of criminal cases in Demerara for the years 2014 to 2019. In the Berbice Magisterial District, 38 per cent of all criminal cases between 2014 and 2019 were sexual offences. Meanwhile, for the Essequibo Magisterial District, 56 per cent of all criminal cases for the years 2014 to 2019 were sexual offences.

In all three Magisterial Districts, sexual offences against minors, as a percentage of overall sexual offence cases at any given period, were between 70 per cent and 100 per cent. Guyana’s Sexual Offences Act (2010) is one of the most progressive in the Caribbean.

A coordinated approach to gender-based violence legislation in the Caribbean dates back to the 1990s with first and second-generation Sexual Offence Acts.
Guyana is one of two Caribbean countries considered models for sexual violence legislation since it has “widened the range of offences, increased penalties, removed all exemptions from marital rape prosecution, improved measures to protect victims during police investigation and court proceedings and have provisions in place to keep track of sex offenders after they have served their sentence,” according to UN Women (Caribbean) on GBV Development in the Law.

The Sexual Offences Courts has managed to significantly speed up the trials of sexual violence matters. In 2019, it was reported that since the placement of specialised courts handling sexual violence matters, the judiciary had seen an increase in sexual offence convictions.

On the flip side, teaching consent is a must if there is ever to be a reduction in the alarming number of sexual violence cases in Guyana. There is a floating misconception held by some that teaching consent could encourage young people to engage in sexual activity.

The truth of the matter is that sexual debut age in Guyana is 14. President Ali himself was forced to comment on the rising number of recorded rape cases based on the 2021 crime date.
“If you look at rape, we had a 55 per cent increase [for 2021]. This is an issue we have to get tough on. This is one of the areas that we have to see tremendous improvement”, Dr Ali said during a public address in November 2021.

The published list of cases for the criminal law term is expected soon. It is not to pre-empt that sexual violence cases will represent the majority, however, judging from the already-present trend over years, there’s little suggesting the numbers will show otherwise.