Stop gender-based violence now

THE EDITOR: Déjà vu! First day of school horror. It is like someone put 2020 on repeat. This is the only way to describe the news that greeted the teaching fraternity on the reopening of school.

January 2020, on the first day of school, principal Jezelle Phillip was stabbed to death by a male relative as her students looked on. On Monday, another first day of school, we receive news of the murder of Preysal Secondary School teacher Suzette Sylvester.

As the TT Unified Teachers’ Association joins the rest of the nation in mourning, we express sincere condolences to the family and colleagues of Sylvester and pray that her soul rests in peace.

This is a clarion call for action. TTUTA commits to join this fight as action to end violence against women in our society is long overdue. Every day reports of violence against women are logged. Intimate partner violence, gender-motivated killings, use of sexual violence as a weapon are just some examples. Violence against women comes in many different forms and harms families as well as communities.

In 2018, the president of the Coalition Against Domestic Violence stated, “Violence against women in Trinidad and Tobago has reached crisis point.” It seems that this crisis has neither waned nor ebbed. Rather, as statistics show, domestic violence has increased exponentially, more so since the advent of the novel coronavirus and its accompanying restrictions.

Gender-based violence is defined as “violence that is disproportionately directed against a woman because she is a woman or that affects women disproportionately” and includes acts that inflict physical, mental, or sexual harm or suffering, threats of such acts, coercion, and other deprivations of liberty.

While the State has a legal obligation to prevent and eliminate violence against women, we as citizens have a duty to take a stance. We cannot afford to be complacent. The silence on violence against women has long been broken and now it is time for stronger action. We must speak out with a strong voice against abuse and mistreatment wherever it occurs. TTUTA condemns all forms of gender-based violence.

COMMITTEE ON STATUS

OF WOMEN, TTUTA