Sexual Assault/Rape is a Form of Domestic Violence

Victim moved to safe house

By CECILY ASSON 

Sunday, September 23 2012

A 15-YEAR-OLD schoolgirl has been removed to a safe house by police after she was raped twice by her father, police reported yesterday.

The teenager, who police said was also fondled during another attack at her home on Thursday, is currently being counselled by counsellors of the Victim Support Unit.

The victim is a Form Two student and according to a police report, she told her guidance counsellor on Thursday that the first attack occurred on August 24, and the lastest one occurred last week. In the first attack, she was at home with her father when he entered her bedroom and sexually assaulted her.

The girl was subsequently taken to the police by the counsellor and her mother, where she reported that her father held her on the bed and forced her to have sexual intercourse with him around midday on August 24. The report about the incident was made at a police station in the south-western division.

The second incident occurred on Thursday last at about 5.30 am, while at the said house, the father fondled the teenager’s breast and private parts. On Friday, police took the victim to the district’s health centre where she was medically examined.

The girl was not allowed to go back home in the interest of her safety.

Cpl Seepersad is conducting investigations.

Source: http://www.newsday.co.tt/crime_and_court/0,166619.html

Family Violence Takes Another Life

Tobago pensioner murdered

By KARL E CUPID

Tobago Bureau Tuesday, September 18 2012

MURDERED: Tobago pensioner Gerald Holder...

A 76-YEAR-OLD Tobago pensioner, who was described as being well-loved, was chopped to death yesterday morning at his Roxborough Estate home by a male relative who police said was mentally unbalanced.

Gerald Holder also fondly known as “La Punjet”, a retired estate worker, was pronounced dead on arrival at the Scarborough Hospital. A 31-year-old suspect was nabbed by police last night and is now in custody. Police said he is an outpatient of the Psychiatric Unit of the Scarborough Hospital.

This is the second murder in Tobago in September and the fourth for this year. According to an eyewitness report, at 7.30 am, Holder was helping a young female relative to fill water in a washing machine when the suspect walked up to the elderly man and dealt him a chop across his head before running off.

Holder was rushed to the Scarborough Hospital where he was later pronounced dead on arrival. Relatives and villagers of Roxborough Estate were yesterday in a state of shock over the killing.

On several previous occasions, relatives said, the suspect had thrown missiles at Holder. Relatives of the victim and suspect were critical of the response they received from officers of the Roxborough Police Station whenever they made reports about his erratic behaviour.

“The Roxborough police never even came in the yard on occasions when we made reports to them. It is not the first time he has attacked the old man,” a female relative told Newsday.

“And watch them now,” the relative declared, as policemen lingered near the victim’s house. An autopsy is expected to be carried out today and Tobago Homicide Investigations Bureau detectives spearheaded by Inspector Ucef Alfred, are continuing investigations.

Two Thursdays ago, Veronie King, a 54-year-old mother of eight, was brutally attacked and killed while she was in her garden at Smithfield in lower Scarborough. 

Source: http://www.newsday.co.tt/crime_and_court/0,166527.html

The new fight against domestic violence

By By Cedriann Martin

Story Created: Sep 14, 2012 at 11:44 PM ECT

Story Updated: Sep 14, 2012 at 11:44 PM ECT 

 

Slit throats. Chopped bodies. The painful recollections of relatives. Ever so often red letter headlines and bloody details remind us that domestic violence remains a reality for some families.

But the statistics tell us something more. This issue, far from being isolated, is endemic. At a Magistrate's Workshop on the Domestic Violence Act last Saturday, attorney Crystal Brizan pointed to data from the Crime and Problem Analysis (CAPA) unit of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service. Over the decade from 2001 to 2011, on average 25 persons were murdered each year as a result of domestic violence. And strikingly, in 2011 there were 157 recorded cases of protection orders being breached. That means that even when survivors muster the courage and resolve to seek the protection of the state, they remain vulnerable.

Advocates for Safe Parenthood: Improving Reproductive Equity (ASPIRE) hosted the workshop at the Hall of Justice to identify strategies for strengthening the protection order. The event was part of a European Union-funded effort—the Zero Tolerance Campaign. It was also supported by the Judicial Education Institute of Trinidad and Tobago.

ASPIRE chairperson and attorney, Lynette Seebaran-Suite, acknowledged the work that has been done by advocates, civil society, law-makers, the police service and the judiciary over the years to increase awareness about the issue and bolster the national response. Over the 21-year-long existence of the Domestic Violence Act, she said, there has been a shift toward treating domestic violence matters with the seriousness and confidentiality they deserve.

"Yet despite all these gains women are dying gruesome and violent deaths at the hands of their partners although they have protection orders," Seebaran-Suite stressed. She said the goal of the Zero Tolerance Campaign was to usher in a new generation of the response to the issue.

"It is about a change of the mores and norms of society so that the problem is stemmed at the outset rather than dealing with the terrible symptoms. There must be support for survivors. We want to devise the machinery and methods so that support is extended after a protection order is issued," she went on. Seebaran-Suite noted that there is a role for observers, whether in the community or workplace, to "throw up a network of support around survivors even after that have accessed an order". And she insisted that all elements of the response including shelters, hotlines, counselling services, social services and a social welfare network must be well-resourced.

The attorney stressed that there are already in existence a number of legal tools that are not widely used to secure the rights and safety of domestic violence survivors. For example, bail may be refused on applications from breaches of protection orders if the perpetrator is judged to still be a threat and danger to his partner or other family members. She also noted that there was a discretion to remove the perpetrator, rather than the survivor, from the house.

Columnist and novelist, Kevin Baldeosingh, explored the untapped potential of the media to reduce domestic violence by influencing a change in attitudes.

"Journalists report stories," he began. "Sometimes we even get it right. Both journalists and magistrates see the good and the bad. How these stories are shared is important because human beings are story-telling and listening creatures. We use narratives to internalise our space. Attitudes are part of what needs to be changed in the battle against domestic violence."

Pointing to a 2008 survey which found that 97 percent of Trinidadian women thought that a man can never be justified in beating his spouse, Baldeosingh noted that there was a proportion of women who remain in violent situations despite this belief, while a smaller group still holds the view that men are sometimes justified in beating their wives.

"Public opinion can be more powerful than bureaucratic measures you may want to take," he said. He suggested that the media couldhelp make domestic violence less accepted and tolerated in society, but had to walk a tightrope in terms of not exaggerating the situation and being critical about some of the data.

Last November ASPIRE launched a counselling clinic providing legal and medical counselling services to abuse survivors. In a second phase of the project Brizan compiled domestic violence statistics from various agencies with the goal of creating a clearing house of all national data on the issue. She noted that a seeming spike in cases in 2010 was largely due to improved report-recording processes by the Police Service. The next step, she said, is recreating the outrage surrounding the issue and collaborating with stakeholders at all levels of the response to fill the gaps in the existing system.

Source: http://www.trinidadexpress.com/woman-magazine/The__new__fight_against_domestic_violence-169867766.html

Intimate Partner Violence is NOT Love

Caribbean Women Parliamentarians Speak Out on Human Trafficking and Women's Human Rights

Caribbean Women Parliamentarians Speak Out on Human Trafficking and Women's Human Rights

The Center for Women Policy Studies is honored and proud to share the leadership of the women Members of Parliament from the Caribbean region who participated in our GlobalPOWER® Caribbean program in June of 2012.  As advocates for women’s human rights both within their Parliaments and in their constituencies, these women leaders take their place in the forefront of efforts to address the crisis of international trafficking as a women’s human rights crisis that requires sustained and committed engagement by elected and appointed officials, civil society and business leaders both in the region and throughout the world. 

We invite our colleagues to endorse the Caribbean Parliamentarians’ Statement; please send an email of endorsement to:  cwps@centerwomenpolicy.org.

Statement on Human Trafficking as a Women’s Human Rights Crisis

GlobalPOWER® Caribbean

Center for Women Policy Studies

June 11-13, 2012

Washington, DC

  

 WHEREAS nine elected and appointed women representatives from seven countries across the Caribbean region met under the auspices of GlobalPOWER®, a project of the Center for Women Policy Studies, from June 11 through June 13, 2012 in Washington DC, and

  

WHEREAS the theme of this convening was the international trafficking of women and girls as a global women’s human rights crisis, the need to confront the root causes of this crisis and to form sustainable partnerships in order to most effectively do so, and

 WHEREAS the participants deliberated on the causes of trafficking in persons, including poverty, discriminatory policies and practices, limited access to education, restrictive reproductive rights and health policies, the women and HIV/AIDS epidemic, and violence against women.

 WE RECALL, INVOKE, AND ACKNOWLEDGE international conventions dealing with women’s human rights, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action adopted by the Fourth World Conference on Women, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, theInternational Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), and specifically, the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children.

  

We, the Undersigned, RESOLVE: 

*To pursue vigorously the realization of the right of all women and girls to live free from poverty, violence, discrimination and vulnerability to trafficking;

*To raise awareness of trafficking in persons and its causes, to enforce existing laws and to enact new required legislation to prevent trafficking in persons, prosecute  traffickers, and protect the rights of trafficked persons and those vulnerable to trafficking and to ensure enforcement and implementation of these laws through Parliamentary oversight and provision of resources;

  *To hold accountable all State agencies and regulatory bodies responsible for the effective alignment of state resources, priorities, systems and procedures to strengthen their capacity to more effectively prevent and respond to trafficking in persons;

  

*To hold acountable donors and our States on aid effectiveness and, in particular, to call for alignment of aid with our States’ priorities, systems and procedures, so that they can strengthen capacities.

  WE CALL UPON Heads of State, Parliaments, the Judiciary, international organizations, multilateral and bilateral aid agencies, and non-governmental organizations to immediately allocate resources to address and eliminate the scourge of international trafficking in persons and the denial and abuse of women’s human rights.

  

WE FURTHER CALL for the immediate implementation of  an intersectoral program for Victim Restitution Services as a form of affirmative action for, and on behalf of, all victims of trafficking in persons.

The Honorable Gail Christian Member of Parliament ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA The Honorable Malaka Parker Member of Parliament ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA The Honorable Irene Sandiford-Garner Member of Parliament Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Health BARBADOS The Honorable Pulcheria Teul Former Member of Parliament BELIZE The Honorable Marlene Malahoo Forte Member of Parliament JAMAICA The Honorable Alvina Bertram Reynolds Member of Parliament Minister of Health, Wellness, Human Services and Gender Relations ST. LUCIA The Honorable Vynnette Frederick Member of Parliament ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES The Honorable Lyndira Oudit Member of Parliament Vice President of the Senate THE REPUBLIC OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO The Honorable Verna St. Rose Greaves Member of Parliament Minister of Gender, Youth and Child Development THE REPUBLIC OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO     Source: http://www.centerwomenpolicy.org/news/newsletter/September11_2012.asp