Candlelight Movement calls on government: Give priority to protecting women

The Candlelight Movement has renewed their calls for the government to prioritising policies and legislation to protect women from sexual violence and attacks, referring to the death of 21-year-old Keithisha Cudjoe.

In a media release issued on Wednesday the movement which has pushed for the passage of legislation of pepper spray for women after the murder of 23-year-old Arima court clerk Andrea Bharatt last year, accused the government of taking a relaxed approach to women's safety.

The movement also chided the government for their failure to make pepper spray and licensed firearms more available to those that qualify and questioned whether any progress was made since Bharatt's murder a year ago.

"As heartbreaking and traumatic as this situation is for all law-abiding citizens and women in our country, it is clear that violence meted out against our women will not be important enough to engage the attention of those democratically elected to protect our citizens.

"We again call upon the Parliament to give the safety and protection of our women the priority it deserves so that innocent lives will not continue to be snuffed out."

Citing the delivery of a petition containing 128,000 signatures calling for more protection for women to the Parliament last December, the movement said they were concerned the responses of these citizens were being ignored.

In the release concerns were also raised over the lack of regulation of private hire (PH) taxi drivers which they blamed for the murder of 18-year-old Ashanti Riley.