Gender Based Violence and Guyana’s Judicial System


The scourge of domestic violence has been plaguing Guyana’s shores for years, but of recent, it has become more prevalent with our women, being several battered and even dying at the hands of their husbands, boyfriends or lovers, with little or no justice being meted-out.

Lack of sufficient evidence to prosecute, and corruption, have been two of the main factors which have seen little or no cases of Gender Based Violence victims/families receiving Justice in Guyana’s Judicial System.

While looking at a locally air television commentary, on the June 10 airing of the Walter Rodney Groundings, Dr. David Hinds underscored that the: “Country’s Judicial System is not doing enough to protect our women.”

 Despite not agreeing with many of the arguments posited by Dr. Hinds, I must say that I support this particular point , since it relates to the violation of a women’s human rights and has now become an endemic and universal problem. Unfortunately, not much is being done to halt this scourge.

Putting aside politics, Guyanese must come together and look at ways in which more can be done to address Gender-Based Violence that is widespread in Guyana, as Politicians and Political Activist lie or sometimes play games with the truth of the critical issue, and while they are busy doing the latter, women worldwide continues to die at the hands of their spouse, with the gruesome details flashed across our dailies almost everyday, making it a lot worst for the sanity of our future generation.

Of the majority of cases I have read of victims and their situation, I happened to feel most attached to Sharon Howell who was stabbed and hammered by her lover, Aubrey Peters on May 27.

 Recalling the gruesome tragedy, Howell’s brother, Wickliffe Halley stated that his sister who was stabbed multiple times about the body was also hammered in the head with the claw of the hammer which Peters used to carry out his attack.

Reportedly, the mother of 10 has since been discharged and is on the road to recovery, BUT what society can only hope and pray for, is that the victim does not return in the arms of her attacker, with impenetrable hopes that he will change for the better.

Being a Journalist for a number of years, I am familiar with some of the most logical, amazing and unintelligent answers from some of the survivors of Gender-Based Violence: …..whether I love him…it is the first time he has ever hit me or he was under the influence and as such, his actions can be justified….

Come on ladies……no one can deny that Gender-Based Violence is among  the nation’s most critical ills….but we must join the forces and assist the decisions makers and other organisations which have rallied towards the issue, whether in the form of public awareness or sensitization programmes, to see the ratio of women dying at the hands of their lovers reduced, and in the near future eliminated.

However, while much can be done and is being done to remedy the situation, Guyana’s Judicial System needs to up-the-ante with respect to prosecution as it has been doing rather poorly over the years, as many of these same attackers have walked out of the court system as free men and available to readily prey on their next victim.

The authorities also need to revamp the system, as there is also a huge backlog of cases awaiting to be heard in the courts…..Judicial actions must be swift….