– Rise in Domestic Violence prompts specialised training

By Faith Greene
ONE thousand police ranks graduated on Friday from the COPSQUAD initiative, garnered to ensure police personnel are equipped with the knowledge needed to serve victims of Domestic/ Gender-Based Violence better.

The Ministry of Human Services and Social Security’s COPSQUAD initiative is a collaboration between the Ministry and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) under the Spotlight Initiative.

Present for the event held at the National Cultural Centre was Minister of Home Affairs, Robenson Benn, Acting Commissioner of Police Clifton Hicken, UN Resident Co-ordinator, Yesim Oruc and other senior officers within the Guyana Police Force.

The Spotlight Initiative is part of the United Nations’ efforts to eliminate violence against women and girls. Within the past few years, several women have lost their lives to the horrendous act of domestic/gender-based violence in Guyana.

From 2021 to present, the numbers have seen a significant rise, and it is with this in mind that police ranks have been trained to be better able to identify, understand, and aid in eliminating violence against women and girls.

Minister of Human Services and Social Security Vindhya Persaud, in her address, said, “Today is a significant day as we would have achieved close to our ambitious goal of training 2,000 police under the COPSQUAD initiative, conceptualised, because of the many many challenges faced, over the years, coping with gender-based violence, domestic violence.

This year alone, from January to March, 3,894 calls to the 914 hotline were made, 129 were directly related to domestic violence, and 20 of those related to sexual offences.”
Minister Persaud noted that this is just through the 914 portal, noting that what is even more alarming is what “we have been seeing through the number of women who have been brutally and horribly murdered.”

She said that due to this femicide, “We see more and more women losing their lives at the hands of those who for some reason or the other may have had a disagreement; may have had an emotional upsurge within themselves, leading them to perpetrate a very violent act.”

The Minister noted that the training that has been delivered must be utilised to its fullest extent throughout Guyana.

“When you are trained and utilise this training, who monitors the impact of what you would have learnt? The first group of people who will be monitoring you, will be the public. These are the people that will be coming to you to make a report. And I did say at the last event like this, we will be issuing a feedback sheet, for members of the public to score how you perform in this way so that we know what you’re doing at the police stations,” Minister Persaud underscored.

Minister Persaud noted that they will compile all information from around the country, and it will be shared with the Minister of Home Affairs, Robenson Benn, as well as the Commissioner of Police so that they can take action should the training not be used.

Meanwhile, according to Home Affairs Minister, Robeson Benn, “We’re going to need something new during the course of the year to have our recruits, when they would have passed-out from Police training, we will have similar training so we can standardize this across the 10 administrative regions.”

The Minister noted that the Police Force would commit to serving communities and Guyana at large. He said that Guyanese expect the service and protection in the motto to be in ways that will uplift their lives and society and make the country better.

United Nations, Resident Coordinator, Yesim Oruc, said, “The Government of Guyana and the people of Guyana, will be among very few countries in the world, who in 2023, will be able to reaffirm getting back on track, to achieve the sustainable development for all people in this country.”

However, she cautioned that issues of gender inequality and peaceful society need not be those sustainable development goals or the areas that continue to keep Guyana behind. She highlighted Guyana’s tremendous progress in the area of gender equality. “It is now our collective duty to make sure that all remaining challenges are irradicated, in that process towards gender equality.”
Additionally, she highlighted that training like this can only help end violence against women if it is used. She urged police ranks to practice it as the certificates are awarded, and pins stuck on, to use the training and develop their partnerships, to commit together to end violence against women.