Womantra: CoP's criticisms of us unfortunate

The NGO Womantra has described as unfortunate criticisms levelled against it by Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith.

In a statement, Womantra said it appeared that Griffith was responding to a newspaper article which picked up its online statement in solidarity with the Venezuelan community in TT. Womantra said the article inaccurately said no perpetrators were arrested in relation to 484 reports of sexual assault mentioned in a parliamentary joint select committee (JSC) report.

The NGO said it did not talk about arrests but "rather to a lack of accountability to these women, which speaks to far broader concerns around multisystemic gaps and shortcomings." Womantra said the report highlighted the "low rate of prosecution of cases of sexual exploitation during the period 2013-2019, that is, out of 484 reports received there were 57 charges and zero convictions."

The group commented, "By any measure, these statistics are still not good enough and speak to the urgent need for further dedicated intervention."

Womantra said the story, which ignited a response from Griffith, excluded its reference to alarming evidence that police officers have been engaged in human trafficking and the sexual abuse of migrant women. The NGO said these are claims it continues to assert that Griffith should publicly address.

Womantra said the article also did not refer to its calls to the Media Association and other entities to improve and be more sensitive "in our responses to and coverage of incidents of gender-based violence."

Womantra said it has acknowledged the efforts of the police to fill these gaps on multiple occasions. The group highlighted a Newsday report on June 6 on the police's Gender Based Violence Unit having made 106 arrests at that time.

Womantra said contributions that seek to raise awareness of these gaps in the hopes of improving systems cannot be reduced to attacks on the police or Griffith. The NGO said this should not happen "especially when the entire justice system is failing to guarantee justice for victims of sexual and gender-based violence."

After seeing Griffith's statement, Womantra said, one of its directors spoke to him personally.

The group said its first responsibility is to its clients, which include victims of gender-based violence and "we continue to strive to do right by them." Womantra said it remains open to working with state agencies, including the police, to create frameworks that could address gender-based violence.

It continues to hope that "empathetic, transformational leadership can be normalised across all public spheres, where solutions to calls for justice get centred and prioritised over the content of these calls. "