Experts: Culture change needed to end gender-based violence

General manager of the Gender-Based Violence Unit Shireen Pollard. - ANGELO MARCELLE
General manager of the Gender-Based Violence Unit Shireen Pollard. - ANGELO MARCELLE

Lack of data, the prevalence of "sextortion" and the need for behaviour change and school reform were some of the topics brought up on Tuesday during the TT Transparency Institute’s virtual town hall meeting on ending gender-based violence in TT.

Equal Opportunity Commission chairman Ian Roach said incidents of gender-based violence (GBV) and intimate-partner violence (IPV) had skyrocketed during the covid19 pandemic as people were forced to stay at home. But he said data on this issue in TT is lacking.

“The lack of comprehensive, systematic, nationally-owned data remains a serious challenge and, consequently, we have not been able to assess our progress in meeting international and national commitments to ending GBV.

“I therefore make a call for surveys specifically to collect data on GBV in all its manifestations. Data from these surveys will provide critical information for the design of intervention to prevent GBV, to protect those who have experienced violence, and to prosecute perpetrators.”

Head of the Gender-Based Violence Unit (GBVU) acting Supt Claire Guy-Alleyne said domestic violence has not been treated as a crime for many years, but this has started to change. She said the unit has started working within the police service to change the attitudes of the officers.

“We are developing a programme towards training every police officer to have them think like a GBVU officer.

“Members of the public can ask to be referred to an officer from the unit. They should also demand a receipt every time they go to make a report. If they feel they have been treated badly by an officer, they can demand to see the most senior person in the station or report the officer to the Police Complaints Authority and the Professional Standards Bureau.

“Officers need to be held to account and we ask the public to help us do so.”

Alleyne said the TTPS app can be used to make reports of abuse and against officers, and there is an SOS button in the app which can be used to summon help. She said since the unit’s implementation in January 2020, there have been over 200 arrests and 300-plus charges.

“The most common offences are breaches of protection orders followed by offences against the person – assault occasioning actual bodily harm, malicious wounding, wounding with intent, choking, assault by beating, and threats.

“We urge family, friends and neighbours to say something if they see something and not wait until someone dies to have regrets.”

GBVU general manager Shireen Pollard said criminalisation of GBV was something new and the unit was working on changing the mindset of the society and the police service.

CEDAW Committee of TT (CCoTT) convener Terry Dale-Ince said sexual extortion or sextortion was a problem which is common in TT but not often spoken about unless someone famous is involved.

She said sextortion occurs when someone uses non-physical forms of coercion to extort sexual favours from a victim. It refers to the broad category of sexual exploitation in which abuse of power is the means of coercion.

Dale-Ince said this practice is under-studied in TT, even though law enforcement acknowledges it is a problem.

“It is a form of violence against women, girls, boys and men. The abusers tend to be repeat offenders. The perpetrators are uniformly men, while the victims can be women, girls, boys and men. A sizeable amount are children, and we need to be more cognizant of this as we move towards more online schooling.”

Gender specialist and Caribbean Women in Leadership (CIWiL) board member Rosina Wiltshire advocated for making schools zones of peace.

“If we spent as much time and energy building kind boys and girls in schools as we did dealing with the consequences of violence after they’d left schools, we would have a better society.

“Policies and laws are only as effective as the societies they operate in, and violence is very normalised in TT. We can teach emotional intelligence (EQ) as much as we teach intelligence quotient (IQ) and have it rewarded.

“It’s about producing citizens with the right emotional balance. We need a thorough overhaul of the education system.”

Pollard said everyone needs to work together to end GBV. She said each person needs to look at themselves on a personal level and speak out in the streets, in their homes, and make an effort to change the country’s culture.

Comments

"Experts: Culture change needed to end gender-based violence"

More in this section