PNM women's league defends Young's push to protect women

The PNM Women's League has defended prime minister-designate Stuart Young against criticisms from St Augustine MP Khadijah Ameen.

On March 7, Ameen said Young failed to do anything to protect women in the country during his time in public office.

A release from the league on March 8 said Ameen should be championing Young's promise to protect women from abuse.

Addressing a function to commemorate International Women's Day, on March 7, at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann's, Young pledged that as Prime Minister he will increase protection for women from domestic violence by introducing harsher laws and penalties.

In response, Ameen accused Young of trying to fool the population.

“It is almost unbelievable that Stuart Young thinks the people of this country are being fooled by his sudden concern for women’s safety.

“For nearly ten years, Young has served in various key positions, including as acting Prime Minister, acting Attorney General and Minister of National Security. During all of those roles, he had the opportunity to introduce policies and legislation to protect women. Yet, he failed to do so. His recent statements about looking at measures to protect women are a direct admission of his failure over the years.”

The league described Ameen's statements as baseless and believes they were not only to "undermine the significant progress made towards women’s empowerment but also detract from the collective efforts required to accelerate action for gender equality."

In defence of Young, the league said several important strides were made to protect women during his tenure as Minister of National Security between 2018 and 2021.

It said these included the introduction of the Domestic Violence (Amendment) Bill (2020) where the government introduced further amendments to the Domestic Violence Act to improve the protection of victims to make it easier for women to obtain protection orders. It said the amendments also included provisions that allowed the issuance of emergency protection orders, which were seen as an important step in providing swift legal recourse for women at risk.

The league said there were also several initiatives to strengthen the police service's gender-based violence unit, the drafting and implementation of a National Gender-Based Violence Policy to address all forms of gender-based violence, increased support for shelters and increased public awareness campaigns.