WGEC wants domestic abusers to be publicly shamed

– calls on decision-makers to denounce culture of violence against women, girls

The Women and Gender Equality Commission (WGEC) is calling for perpetrators of gender-based violence (GBV) to be ‘named and shamed’ publicly, in order to bring an end to this societal scourge.
“The WGEC calls on all decision-makers in the various institutions of Guyana 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 is needed to help change the attitude of citizens and public officials to one of zero tolerance of Gender-Based Violence (GBV),” the WGEC has said.
In a missive on Thursday commemorating the 16 Days of activism against Gender-Based Violence (November 25 to December 10), the WGEC also called for sufficient resources to be allocated towards providing assistance and remedies for victims of gender-based violence.
According to the Commission, there is dire need for safe spaces for victims of domestic abuse, for counselling and for medical and legal aid.
“There is need to adequately enforce the laws that protect women, and they must be able to access justice,” the GWEC has asserted.
The Commission pointed out that the current culture of devaluing women through advertising and music that 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,” it contended.
The GWEC further highlighted that Guyanese women experience interpersonal violence at significantly higher rates than the global average of one in three women.
“In analysing this problem, one has to recognise 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,” it stated.
According to the Commission, patriarchy is a worldview that presupposes the superiority of males over females, and perpetuates such a belief system in social institutions. This, it added, has enabled men with a variety of social privileges, such as personal and political power over women, including legal, economic and sexual advantages.
“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 behaviour, is the wish to ward off or eliminate the feeling of shame and humiliation, and replace it with its opposite: the feeling of pride,” the Commission noted.
To this end, the GWEC has called on parents and care givers to re-examine the way they socialise their sons, by ensuring that negative stereotypes such as “boys will be boys” and “boys must not cry” are discouraged. It further stated that both father and mother should play a meaningful role in the lives of their children, to mould them into model members of society.
Prior to 1996 in Guyana, 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 passing of the Domestic Violence Legislation in 1996 provided some respite to this problem, where violence moved out of the realm of the private sphere to that of a criminal offence.
But some 24 years later, the GWEC pointed out, Guyana continues to harbour attitudes that perpetuate violence against women and girls.
As such, the Women & Gender Equality Commission calls on all Guyanese to redouble their efforts in working together to reduce gender-based violence.
The United Nations recognises that violence against women and girls is a human rights violation that has been perpetuated for decades.
According to the UN, as the world retreated inside homes due to the lockdown measures introduced to curb the COVID-19 pandemic, reports showed an alarming increase in the already existing pandemic of violence against women.
“Accompanying the crisis has been a spike in domestic violence reporting at exactly the time that services, including rule of law, health and shelters, are being diverted to address the pandemic,” stated the UN Secretary-General’s report – ‘Shared Responsibility, Global Solidarity: Responding to the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19’.
The 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence is an annual international campaign that kicks off on 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and runs until 10 December, Human Rights Day. It is being observed this year under the theme “Orange the World: Fund, Respond, Prevent, Collect!”