Justice Seepersad: Start a domestic violence registry

Justice Frank Seepersad called for various legislative changes to be made to protect and support survivors of domestic violence at the inaugural Coalition Against Domestic Violence (CADV) solidarity dinner at the Hyatt Regency in Port of Spain on Wednesday.

Among the legislative changes, Seepersad called for a domestic violence registry to log and keep a record of perpetrators of domestic violence and violence against women.

“A national registry has to be set up so that domestic and gender-based violence offenders can be exposed. This information would enable people to insulate themselves against potential abuse.”

He added that urgent amendments need to be made to the firearms legislation.

“No domestic violence offender should be allowed to retain or apply for a firearm.”

He also said the Matrimonial Proceedings and Property Act should be reviewed to ensure that survivors of domestic abuse are not penalised financially when they leave abusive situations and that housing legislation should be updated so survivors of violence can be allowed to exit leases with the Housing Development Corporation and private landlords without adverse financial consequences.

His suggestions were not limited to legislation. He said everyone at every level should play a role in listening to victims, validating their feelings and providing comfort and support.

He said youth education is vital to this effort.

“Conversations must start at the preschool and primary school levels as we inculcate our children with respect, the need for boundaries and the resetting of culturally entrenched misogynistic stereotypes.”

He called for specialised centres to be established to provide tailored legal, emotional and physiological assistance as well as training to facilitate survivors’ recovery.

He also said healthcare centres and hospitals should be equipped with resources and trained healthcare providers that can identify and treat people who were sexually assaulted or were victims of domestic violence.

He said in the workplace, victims of abuse should be allowed paid or unpaid time off and should be able to qualify for insurance.

Former CADV president Roberta Clarke said in her parents and in her time, violence against women was normalised in society.

“It was used as punchlines in jokes and I think we still hear them from time to time. It was even given as advice in calypsos,” she said.

She quoted the lyrics from a calypso called Philosophy by the Mighty Sparrow, which goes: “I’ve discovered a new philosophy, how to live with women happily/ what Socrates and Plato didn’t know, I’m gonna sock it to you in calypso/ Every now and then, cuff them down. They love you long and they love you strong/ Black up their eye and bruise their knee and they will love you eternally.”

“I don’t know when this calypso was written – I think it is in the 1960s or 1970s – but I doubt that anyone can sing this song today. So I think that this is progress,” Clarke said.

She said women began taking a stand against domestic violence in the 1980s. Some of them set up the first halfway houses, while others lobbied for better laws and effective policing.

“In that rejection of domestic abuse, the CADV was born,” she said.

“The founders understood that the sheer scale of the problem required solidarity with victims. It also required collective activism for state accountability and for the culture to change.

“Today the 16 days of activism is a genuinely global campaign.

“It is a campaign that shines the light on this most common of violations and it is a call for us to commit and re-commit to doing more and doing better to end all forms of gender-based violence and to respond more effectively.”

The dinner was held in the middle of the annual 16-day campaign against violence against women.

The 16 days start on November 25, commemorating the assassination of three sisters, Minerva, Maria Teresa and Patria Mirabal, on the order of Dominican Republic dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina in the 1960s. The three women were strangled and beaten to death for speaking out against the dictator. It ends on December 10, Human Rights Day.

For the year so far there have been 28 murders related to domestic violence. Police have solved 14 of these cases.

On October 8, 34-year-old Tara “Geeta” Ramsaroop and her 14-month-daughter Shermaya “Jada” Motilal were chopped and killed in Barrackpore.

On October 11, Anna Innis-Burke was forced out of her home in Long Circular, St James during a domestic dispute, and made to walk along Belle Vue Road, where the man stabbed her several times. He later kidnapped her 12-year-old son. Police and Defence Force officers found the boy after hours of searching.