Bolder action needed on gender-based violence

The United Nations’ 16 days of activism against gender-based violence began on November 25, and the project demands the highest possible attention from Government after nine months of restrictions to control the spread of covid19.

Globally, incidents of domestic violence have spiked as families find themselves in close, extended, involuntary and, in some cases, unwelcome proximity.

Increasing economic pressures have created additional stresses in family units which must also contend with the difficulties of balancing school at home while managing work responsibilities.

The commitment to the 16-day event must deliver an increase in practical solutions and sustained, forceful public education campaigns to meet the unusual circumstances in which civil society finds itself in 2020.

Some welcome steps have been made.

On Wednesday, the work of the police Gender-based Violence Unit won plaudits from the Opposition Leader for its work in stemming violence against women.

Ayanna Webster-Roy, the minister responsible for gender affairs, has said two domestic violence shelters were opened in May and there are three more in the works.

Ms Webster-Roy announced at the virtual opening of the 16-day observance that the Government was committed to a goal of gender equality by 2030 and “the elimination of all forms of family violence and discrimination.”

Both are ambitious goals, and they must begin in communities, where a fundamental change, through continuous education, is needed to reorient thinking about what’s acceptable in family relations.

Those changes must be made in governance as well as at the most intimate and personal levels of society.

In September, 29-year-old Sheriann Huggins was brutally killed by a male relative; Reshma Kanchan, 25, was chopped to death by a man she had reported to the police for a “disturbance of the peace.”

The list of women injured and murdered in domestic violence cases remains appallingly long, dwarfed only by the number of women and children living in fear and silence in abusive households.

Antoinette Jack-Martin, director of the Gender Affairs Division of the Office of the Prime Minister, called on the public to listen to victims of domestic violence with a compassionate ear, without judgement and to “support and report” incidents of abuse.

In April, Police Commissioner Gary Griffith said domestic violence reports for March had doubled – to 96, compared to 42 in the same month in 2019. Overall, there’s been an estimated 40 per cent rise in local incidents of domestic violence since the covid19 shutdown. More detailed statistics are overdue. These grim details are critical to understanding the scope of the problem.

With the best of intentions and boldest of initiatives, reducing abuse and assault in TT won’t happen without meaningful co-operation between victims, witnesses, activists and law enforcement in understanding, acknowledging and addressing the danger that lives at home.