1 in 5 women reports abuse before 18

Dr Gabrielle Hosein, director of the Institute of Gender and Development Studies, University of the West Indies, said statistics revealed,one in ten women in TT reports non-partner sexual violence.

One in three women report sexual and physical violence and one in five report sexual abuse before age 18. And the perpetrators are well known to them, she said.

She made the revelation at the launch of a campaign for the elimination of violence against women at the Hilton Trinidad, Port of Spain on Monday.

The campaign was launched by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC)

Hosein's figures were based on the 2018 Women’s Health Survey, TT’s first ever survey on the prevalence of violence against women,

She said 84 per cent of women who report non-partner violence did not report it to the authorities or the police.

Hosein, a Newsday columnist, said: “One of the challenges is finding ways for institutions to be more responsive to women’s needs. And that requires real collaboration and conversation.”

Former attorney general Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, SC, said the law on human trafficking conforms to the UN Convention, but notwithstanding the best efforts of the police, given the definition of human trafficking, it is very difficult for the prosecution to establish a conviction.

He said: “I think the law has to be amended to make it simpler, because an accused person is entitled to the full due process of law.

“The other aspect of the law which has to be updated is, in 2000 the government acceded to the convention related to refugees, but we have not yet passed laws to implement that convention. Therefore refugees are just subject to the Immigration Act, which is not suitable to deal with refugee,s who can be very vulnerable to human trafficking and sexual exploitation.”

Maharaj said human trafficking and sexual exploitation were said to be the second biggest industry in the world, generating about US$150 billion every year.

He said TT needs to find a way of detecting the criminals, punishing them and taking away the profit from their crime.

He pointed out that under the Proceeds of Crime Act it was possible to confiscate the profits.

It was the duty of the government, he said, to set up "a proper forensic lab with proper forensic tools with proper training and with help from countries Like USA and Britain, and go after them. That is one of the most effective ways in making a difference in solving this problem.”

The launch theme, A Conversation about Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation,” led Alana Wheeler, director of the Counter Trafficking Unit, to reveal one of the biggest challenges was to get people to come forward with evidence. She appealed to victims to report crimes against them.

Over the next 16 days, said InterClub president Rabbia Khan, the 19 organisations that make up InterClub will be on a drive to bring more awareness to trafficking, rape and sexual exploitation, ending on December 10, Human Rights Day.

Randi Davis, resident representative of the UNDP, said the campaign is global, and the problem affects people in all sectors of society.

Minister of National Security Stuart Young became very emotional during his remarks.

He said, “Gender-based violence knows no class, race, religion or boundary. It has bothered me throughout the course of my adult life and even my young life, because I remember, as a young boy growing up, witnessing – not visually, but via hearing – gender-based violence taking place in the neighbourhood. And I remember coming home one Sunday from cricket with my cricket bat in hand, starting to head out of the house, and my father and mother grabbed me and say, ‘Where are you going?’ and I said, 'If no one else is going to deal with it, I will deal with him today.'”

He said there are people who are looked upon by society as leaders and exemplars but who are nothing more than “bloody bullies. And until we face that reality as a society and we stop giving them accolades and acknowledgment and making them feel that they’re good, we’re not going to change this.

"I am not going to be diplomatic. I am not going to shake that person’s hand, because I know the reality of who that person is.

"A lot of them who hold these positions – not only in politics, but in business and all over – carry themselves out there as though they are something special, when in reality I say they are nothing but cowards.”

Young said gender-based violence has been a topic in Cabinet and the government for the past four years, and he has supported his Cabinet colleague Ayanna Webster-Roy in her quest to find and to build more safe homes.

Tobago East MP Webster-Roy is a minister in the Office of the Prime Minister with responsibility for gender and child affairs.

Also as a member of Cabinet, Young said, he had constantly argued and fought for more resources because the sums allocated could never be enough.

Wiith TT facing serious issues of human trafficking, he said as the head of National Security, together with the country’s other heads of security, he is going to go after organised crime, which uses and exploits women and carries out human trafficking.

He said, “I want the ones on top who benefit from it. Because very often the women are the victims. I want the change of narrative.

He said when raids are carried out and people are held, he wants photographs of the customers rather than women, on the front pages of newpapers. "Until we start to shame these men of all levels of society who believe they can treat our women and foreign women in this manner, we will not change.”