Young vows to protect women from domestic violence

PRIME MINISTER DESIGNATE Stuart Young pledged to protect women from abuse, addressing a function on March 7 at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann's, to mark International Women's Day, which is celebrated on March 8.

On top of such policies and actions to curb domestic violence, he also planned to support women more generally in their lives.

Young also used the occasion to pay tribute to his mother who was present, while saying he would not engage in shallow conversations about where he came from, but would instead just smile.

He attested, "I am a living product first-hand of the benefit of a strong woman in a household and someone who put the children first and her husband first."

Young said he understood that not everyone nowadays has that benefit.

He said, "The Government is focused in the last ten years on doing what we can to bring more levels of equality, more levels of equity and more levels of parity, to ensure our women are provided a safer space, to shine and to excel in positions."

Young said the government he hopes to lead would have as one of its cornerstone the enactment policies and practices to help women to access support and people to speak to.

"You see domestic violence both with intimate partners and non-intimate partners, we are going to tackle that scourge frontally."

He vowed to ask the Opposition for its support to increase the penalties and sentencing on those who commit these heinous acts on women.

Young said domestic violence happens at all level of this society.

"I am a strong believer that we as a society must stand up and let the persons who are committing these acts against our women and children know that we are not accepting it. So if I know that is how you behave don't come and hold out your hand for me to shake because I am not accepting it.

"It is one of the first things we will do. Also providing more protection when women take the first step of getting protection orders and not letting it just be a piece of paper, that is something I also intend to focus on."

He said society needs to move with the government's new policies.

He alluded to finding ways to help mentally assist perpetrators of abuse, to curb the scourge of domestic violence.

"I don't hold my head in the sand and think that just by implementing laws it is going to offer protection.

"I understand that many times the perpetrators of these heinous acts, it is because mentally they don't have the wherewithal to handle the situations.

"And that is not an excuse for them. But we must find ways to assist, because that is the only way we will really begin to deal with this awful scourge that is not only creeping but creeping a bit too fast for my liking in our society."

Young said in some areas he represents in Port of Spain North/St Ann's West, he sees young mothers going through struggles, and reckoned that they could benefit from support such as people trained in psychology and psychiatry.

Saying TT has many graduates in psychology, he promised to ask Cabinet to support a programme to start offering more professional help across the country.

"I understand the difference that can have and will make to our society. That is a commitment I give.

"It is going to be very focused. We have built the right foundation."

Young said the country was now in a period where citizens had some serious decisions to make, alluding to the upcoming general election.

He asked listeners to take TT to the next level, from its current extremely strong foundation.

"But it cannot be done unless our women continue to take those leadership roles at whatever level in society."

He gave his personal commitment to do his best to allocate adequate resources to this end.

"We have decisions to make in the next few months."

He asked voters to reflect on whose actions had spoken loudest in recent years.

"Look at the political landscape and see how MPs are treated on both sides of the aisle and in particular our female MPs."

He asked voters to see who is just giving lip service for a particular moment, as against who was genuinely prepared to walk the talk to ensure women were respected and given support and opportunities for leadership.

Young then paid tribute to former MP for D'Abadie/O'Meara Lisa Morris-Julian who died on December 16, 2024, in a fire at her Arima home alongside her son and daughter.

"We will continue the work she wanted for TT."

Earlier, he said he was proud as a Trinbagonian man, to look around the room and see a cross-section of society comprised of women who were "strong, independent, vibrant, intelligent backbones of our society."

Young said in the past ten years women had taken their place in the leadership of TT.

"We have led by action and we have shown that this is not just talk and this is not just a PR exercise.

"We were the first to have, quite rightly, the head of our State being a powerful woman (Paula Mae-Weekes) and then succeeded by our current head of State, another powerful woman (Christine Kangaloo, who was former president of the Senate.)"

He saluted Speaker Bridgid Annisette-George and Leader of the House of Representatives Camille Robinson-Regis.

"In the public service, you look around and it is being led, I am certain, at the permanent secretary level and heads of division level and all of the leadership levels, there are more of our women in place and in posts than our men. I salute TT for leading throughout the world."

Young said wealthy, developed countries are striving to get at least a certain minimum number of women in top positions.

"When those reports come to Cabinet, I smile because TT is already one of the leading countries in the world in that sector and in that measurement."