Guyana leading region in response to gender-based violence – Dr Vindhya Persaud

…says 1 in 3 women affected by violence before age of 55

The Spotlight initiative, which was rolled out in 2020 by the Guyana Government in collaboration with the United Nations and the European Union, has been a key pillar in the fight against gender-based violence over the years.
This is according to Human Services and Social Security Minister Dr Vindhya Persaud, who on Sunday, during a gender-based violence medical symposium held at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC), remarked that being appointed head of the Human Services and Social Security Ministry has afforded her the opportunity to examine ways in which Government could tackle this scourge of gender-based violence.
“It started in 2020 when I became minister, and at that moment it gave me the opportunity to craft, with the aid of the Spotlight initiative, Guyana’s response to violence,” the minister disclosed.
Notably, she revealed that despite joining the programme late, Guyana’s model under the Spotlight initiative is the best of its kind. In this regard, she highlighted that Guyana is currently leading the region in relation to its response to gender-based violence.
“We knew in signing on that, as a country, we were starting eight months after every country in this region that is with the Spotlight initiative; and in doing that, we had to play catch up. I very sincerely tell you that, at the moment, Guyana’s model has been held as the best model from the Spotlight initiative, and we’re now seen as leading every country in the region with our gender-based violence response,” Minister Dr Vindhya Persaud has asserted.
Under this initiative, she disclosed, the European Union (EU) contributed $4.5 million euros (approximately Gy$1 billion) over three years, for Guyana to invest in strategic and catalytic interventions to address the root causes, and holistically address gender-based violence and family violence employing innovative approaches involving state and Government institutions, civil society organizations, communities, private sector, and women’s movements.
In delving into the gender-based violence landscape in Guyana, the minister further revealed that women and girls are the leading demographic affected by this issue in the country. She went on to highlight that one in three women within the country is affected by violence before the age of 55.
“We have seen, in the context of our country’s statistics, that women are disproportionately affected by violence. We have seen statistics that are alarming and that have been very persistent, where one in three women (is) affected by violence, and it further goes on to say (that), before the age of 55…one in three would be affected by violence,” the minister explained.
Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall, also speaking at the symposium, highlighted some of the deficiencies that were previously in the law. One such deficiency related to police officers not being able to enter the domestic violence premises without a warrant. In this regard the Attorney General explained that that and other issues have been examined and fixed in the Family Violence Act.
“So, I’ve outlined to you some of the major defects of the law of 1996, which we discovered with the passage of time. And we made a promise that we will revamp and overhaul the law, and we did in the form of the Family Violence Act, which your minister piloted in this house not so long ago. We also consulted widely, in crafting the law, with many stakeholder organizations to get their input, because you have many important civic and civil organizations, NGOs who have done sterling work on domestic violence and would have gathered great experience,” he stated.