In commemorating the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, the Women and Gender Equality Commission (WGEC) on Thursday said it is time for Guyana to redouble its efforts to reduce Gender Based Violence.
The 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence spans from November 25 to December 10.
WGEC said 24 years after the passage of the Domestic Violence Legislation (1996), Guyana continues to harbor attitudes that perpetuate violence against women and girls. The Commission pointed out that Guyanese women experience interpersonal violence at significantly higher rates than the global average of one in three women.
“In analyzing this problem one has to recognize that Guyana inherited its legal system from European colonists who believed that women were inferior to men. The law is not gender neutral but retains a deep structure that is patriarchal. This is the elephant in the room which needs to be addressed,” the Equality Commission said in a statement.
It added: “Patriarchy is a worldview that presupposes the superiority of males over females and perpetuates such a belief system in social institutions. Men have been given a variety of social privileges such as personal and political power over women, including legal, economic and sexual advantages.”
It submitted that violence has long been the weapon of choice to assert one’s real self-worth within patriarchal culture.
“The basic physiological motive, or cause of violent behavior is the wish to ward off or eliminate the feeling of shame and humiliation and replace it with its opposite the feeling of pride,” it said while renewing calls for the country’s decision makers to denounce the culture of tolerance for violence against women and girls by ensuring they take the requisite actions to name and shame those guilty of perpetuating such actions.
Public pressure, it said, is needed to help change the attitude of citizens and public officials to one of zero tolerance of Gender Based Violence (GBV).
Further, it said that sufficient resources should be allocated towards providing assistance and remedies for victims. Currently, there is a dire need for safe spaces for victims of domestic abuse for counselling, and for medical and legal aid. Also, there is need to adequately enforce the laws that protect women and they must be able to access justice, the organisation said.
“The current culture of devaluing women through advertising and music which belittles women and advocates violence must be brought to an end. Pressure is needed to use the existing laws to put a stop to activities that are disrespectful of women.
We call on parents and care givers to re-examine the way they socialize their sons by ensuring that negative stereotype such as “boys will be boys” and “boys must not cry” are discouraged. Both father and mother should play a meaningful role in the lives of their children,” the Equality Commission urged.
The observance of International Women’s Year 1975 by the United Nations and the subsequent actions by governments globally to give effect to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women New York (CEDAW) has reinforced what was always known – domestic violence is pervasive, the Commission said.
It said the decision by the United Nations to recognize November 25 in honor of the three Mirabel sisters who were murdered by the Trujillo regime in 1960 created a catalyst for organizations to use this observance to bring attention to the systemic violation of women and girls.
“The first UN world Conference on women in 1980 and the three subsequent conferences heard the powerful voices of women all over the world affirming that Gender Based Violence is a violation of their human right which is unacceptable, intolerable and unjustifiable.
In Guyana prior to 1996 Gender Based Violence was considered a family affair. The research undertaken by Danns/Shivpersaud in 1989 affirmed that two out of every five women in Guyana had experienced some type of violence,” the commission recalled.
