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Apr 26, 2017 News
Any form of violence against women and girls is an extreme manifestation of gender inequality and systemic gender-based discrimination. This notion has been amplified by Minister of Social Protection, Ms. Amna Ally, who has revealed that sexual assault for instance has been known to have tremendous costs to communities and the nation as a whole.
“If left unaddressed, these human rights violations pose serious consequences for current and future generations. It undermines the health, dignity, security and the autonomy of its victims,” Minister Ally has said.
She has asserted that “preventing and ending violence against women and girls is one of our administration’s top priorities and we will take action to ensure that it is eliminated throughout Guyana.”
To combat this challenge, she revealed that the Social Protection Ministry along with its strategic partners is committed to implementing legislation and policies relevant to the prevention and response to the cries for justice of women, children and even men who have suffered through heinous crime.
Her disclosure in this regard comes even as the Ministry of Social Protection observes Sexual Assault Awareness Week which spans the period April 24 – 30, 2017.
“We will work to bring all perpetrators to justice, ensure that institutions are held accountable and the effective support systems are in place for victims,” Minister Ally has assured.
“This week we affirm our commitment to shift and functionally transform attitudes that permit sexual assault to be hidden in a culture of silence and permits such crime to go unpunished.”
Addressing the issue of violence, including sexual violence, has long been gaining the attention of a number of other local organisations including the Ministries of Public Health, Public Security, the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation [GPHC], among others.
Moreover, towards the latter part of last year the GPHC collaborated with Child Link to conduct a child abuse workshop. Speaking at that forum on behalf of the Public Health Ministry, Dr. Oneka Scott, confidently informed when it comes to child sexual abuse is in fact a straightforward one.
“We have a zero tolerance approach,” she categorically asserted.
But the situation has been one that has impacted society from time immemorial. “Throughout the ages child abuse has been a problem, whether or not we have recognised it outright, whether or not it has been cultural to sweep it under the rug or whether we have had advocacy on all levels to stop it,” Dr. Scott noted.
She noted that while reports and stories of child abuse have plagued the society for some time now and the most common forms can be addressed by a multi-sectoral approach “we have to really be on the awareness side of it because there are a lot of forms of it in the Latin America and Caribbean territories that are not that out rightly recognised.”
Dr. Scott in highlighting the Situational Analysis on Women and Children 2002-2012 done by UNICEF, pointed out that it showed that 5.5 percent of girls married before the age of 15.
She questioned, “Is that a form of sexual abuse or do we just attribute it to cultural norms, or to religion? We say ‘oh that’s normal, it is something that is common in a particular religion’…What about the rights of these girls to education? Was that right violated by their early marriage?”
But since the Ministry of Public Health recognises that health across the life cycle is important, Dr. Scott noted that that all forms of child abuse, including sexual abuse, needs to be looked at with haste.
However, she considered that the Public Health Ministry, the GPHC, the Ministry of Education and Social Services cannot do it without support from other crucial organisations. “There has been a call for a multi-sectoral approach…because we need not forget those populations that are most vulnerable, those that are most at risk and those are the populations in the interior locations…” said Dr Scott.
“We have deemed it, stamped it, branded it as a norm; it is a culture….[but] it can no longer be accepted.”
According to Minister Ally in her Sexual Assault Awareness Week message, victims of sexual assault can suffer sexual and reproductive health consequences, including forced and unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortions, sexually transmitted infections including HIV and even death.
The Minister has underscored that “we will continue to engage civil society and the private sector in preventing and ending violence against women and girls working with survivors to empower them, making sure their experiences are taken into consideration in the development of responses and work with those women and girls who suffer multiple and intersecting forms of violence who are particularly vulnerable.”
Already a comprehensive, multi-faceted and multi-levelled strategic intervention is in place which, according to the Minister, will complement existing efforts of government and civil society to improve the national response to sexual violence.
This coordinated mechanism, she informed, has been established through the National Task Force for the Prevention of Sexual Violence.
In addition, she revealed that protocols for medical practitioners, police officers and prosecutors have been developed and training programmes are currently ongoing to respond effectively to matters involving sexual assault, Minister Ally has quipped.
According to Minister Ally, “As Guyana declares the week of April 24 – 30, 2017 as Sexual Assault Week under the theme ‘Engaging new voices to end sexual violence’, the Ministry of Social Protection intends to convey to the nation the missive of prevention and this prevalence and devastation of sexual assault which is one of the most pervasive violations of human rights.”
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