Close to one decade after it was passed as law, the Sexual Offences Act is still to deliver justice to the hundreds of victims of sexual offences in Guyana.
Woman rights activist, Karen DeSouza, says two Ministers later, there is still a lot of chat and no concrete moves have been made to fully implement the Act.
“The lack of implementation of the Sexual Offences Act has been very disappointing to many of us who worked hard on all aspects of getting that act,” she stated.
DeSouza told Guyana Times International in a recent interview that while the current Government has moved to set up a Sexual Offenses Unit, they have not empowered the National Task Force.
Under the act the President shall appoint members of the Task Force which shall include the Ministers of Legal Affairs, Home Affairs, Human Services and Social Security, Amerindian Affairs, Education, Health, Local Government, Youth, Sport and Culture, senior public officers with responsibility for law enforcement, health and human and social services and persons from non-governmental organisations.
The head of Red Thread also reminded that the Sexual Offenses Act speaks to prevention and the need for such a Task Force to address awareness and monitoring the implementation of the law.
“While it has been set up, it has been transformed into a ministerial task force. And so far, there has been nothing said publicly about it,” she remarked.
DeSouza said the Sexual Offences Task Force needs to be properly resourced so that a national plan of action for the prevention of sexual offences could become a reality.
According to DeSouza, public statements coming from the Sexual Offenses Unit have been offering a lot less than one would expect.
“So, it seems to me that the Ministry is now taking on a certain kind of social welfare role as opposed to being more focused on the policy aspect and look at implementation to ensure that institutional changes are made,” she pointed out.
The women rights activist also highlighted the fact that the director of the Unit does not speak to policy and intuitional changes, or legal arrangements. “The Unit has been set up but the work is not happening,” she asserted.
Further, “The work of the Ministry of Social Protection has the primary responsibility for both sexual offenses and domestic violence, but I think it is still very limited and not focused enough on institutional changes and policy changes,” DeSouza said.
DeSouza said while some work has been done to train persons to respond to cases of rape and paedophilia in Guyana, she said that there is still a lack of proper investigations of sexual offences cases.
She again stressed the need for comprehensive services from special units set up in every hospital or appropriate venues, where services are centralised and victim-centred.
The need for trained Counsellors to address the psychological and physical trauma and trained Police Officers to take statements in a humane and professional manner was also cited.
During a meeting with Social Protection Minister Amna Ally, Red Thread had sought to raise these concerns, but nothing has tangible improvements have been made.
