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Oct 10, 2010 Letters
Dear Editor,
The Neesa Gopaul case exposes some serious questions about the limits of the system in place to make the Sexual Offences Act 2010 work, and perhaps deficiencies in the Act itself.
The horrible life and death of this poor child demonstrates yet again the brazen extent to which child rapists operate and are aided by professionals at every step in Guyana. Should the police personnel and Justice of Peace involved not be treated as accomplices in the abuse and death of this child?
We appear to have a cadre of police officers, lawyers, Justices of Peace, and doctors at hand to help rapists and violent criminals avoid the law. It would be difficult to conclude anything but this from the cases I have been observing in the last 10 years.
Sadly one has long stopped wondering about the integrity of many professionals in private and public practice. However, one is left to wonder about the worth of the new legislation. How does it treat with the professionals that willfully as well as inadvertently through negligence on the job help rapists to avoid the law?
Children are threatened not only by perpetrators of rape but also by the network of professionals at hand to help rapists perpetuate their acts and avoid justice. This includes pharmacists who appear to be entirely unregulated and unmonitored by the Government. The professional support network for rapists is one of the fundamental problems that have to be tackled. Every case that the professionals help to derail sinks victims everywhere into despair and sets back the ability of our society to address the horrific epidemic of child rape and violence in Guyana.
Minister Manickchand has worked hard to move the Sexual Offences Act forward, but it is only a small start and even now, one wonders if it is enough.
I hope that Neesa’s gruesome death will catalyse a serious examination within respective professional bodies and the Central Government of the role that members of the professional services have been playing in facilitating and encouraging rape and violence against our children.
By the way, our children do not need any more “consultations” on this issue. They need prompt corrective action, legislative and otherwise.
Simone Mangal
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