By Verdel Bishop
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| Family support: Author’s mother, Jean Persaide, from left, her father, Ecliffe Persadie; sister Simone Persadie and author Natalie Persadie at the launch of A Critical Analysis of the Efficacy of Law as a Tool to Achieve Gender Equality, at the Noor Hassanali Auditorium, UWI, St Augustine. —Photos: Verdel Bishop |
Justice Desiree Bernard in her review, hailed the book as an outstanding comprehensive book of high journalistic standard. The book is dedicated to providing a forum for exploring gender issues, law and society. “It is a masterpiece. I recommend it to all persons male or female interested in the advancement of women in all spares whether political, cultural social or economic,” Bernard said. Bernard noted that it is only with depth of knowledge on equality that solutions can be identified and public awareness can be raised.
Persadie said the achievement of legal advances for women at international or international levels is difficult. “Law is often perceived as an instrument that can effect social change. While this might be so, it must be complemented by the necessary financial and human resources to make the law effective. Among developing countries, such as Trinidad and Tobago, the achievement of legal advances for women at either the international or national levelsis particularly difficult where practical measures are not subsequently implemented. This is, perhaps, attributable to a lack of political will,”Persadie said.
She noted that important issues such as gender equality and domestic violence are not given priority and laws aimed at protecting women and promoting women’s rights are ineffective, scant, or unenforced. “Gender justice can only be realised through a multilevel approach from above and, more importantly, from below, as women have the potential to effect real national and international legal and institutional change to ensure gender equality at both levels,” she said.
Persadie told the Express that gender equality and domestic violence are real social problems that exist. She noted that the book is a scholarly work that university students and practitioners with an interest in law and gender will find useful. “People tend to believe that law is the answer to any social ill or problem we face, so I thought that it would be interesting to examine how the law in Trinidad and Tobago provided for women, as gender inequality and domestic violence are real social problems that exist here.”
She explained further, “It is generally accepted that developing countries are less inclined to prioritise “softer” issues, such as environmental protection or women’s issues for example, and this study was meant, in part, to examine the truth of this presumption. What I found was that, while we may have laws to deal with many social problems, there is the problem of poor enforcement of the law. This is due to the fact that the associated institutional and human resource bases necessary to make the law workable are poorly funded and, therefore, proper implementation of the law becomes a problem.”.
The Domestic Violence Act which was passed in 1999 has little effect in the protection against women, the author said. “Domestic violence is a real problem; it is an issue that headlines very regularly. Trinidad and Tobago passed the Domestic Violence Act in 1999, but it has clearly had little effect in providing the necessary protection to abused women. While this piece of legislation is meant to address domestic violence in its widest possible sense, as it covers physical, sexual, emotional or psychological or financial abuse, there are a number of shortcomings in the Act itself which undermine its effectiveness, as noted in Chapter Five of the book. The local context was not fully taken into consideration when this piece of legislation was adopted,” she said.
The author believes there are numerous institutional issues at the level of the Magistrates’ Court and the Police Service that needs to be addressed to help make the Act more effective. “Ideally, the scope of the Family Court will be changed such that it will be able to hear domestic violence matters as a primary issue as the atmosphere is much more conducive than at the Magistrates’ Court. One of the most important services offered at the Family Court is the post-order counselling service which can help deal with the psychological fallout; this is not a service available at the Magistrates’ Court.”
In the first chapter of A Critical Analysis of the Efficacy of Law as a Tool to Achieve Gender Equality, Persadie said it is important to use a combined theoretical approach relying on both feminist legal theory and critical theory to uncover inherent biases as a means of offering hope to women in accessing and securing rights. She noted the feminist legal theory is very much aligned with the goal of critical theory which is to question historically given truths and to expose the inherent biases lying therein as a means for self-development: it is for this reason important that the theoretical approach be combined to discuss the possibility of women gaining greater access to the rights that are theirs.
“Generally speaking, we need attititudinal
change to break the cycle of gender inequality and domestic violence.
Important to the process are education, from any early age, to change
traditional and (often) discriminatory attitudes; training; legal
literacy; adequate gender representation in top policy-making positions;
and the provision of resources, financial and otherwise, which if
provided, would indicate political will at the level of the State,”
Persadie said.
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