Government to table legislation for monitoring of convicted paedophiles-Luncheon

Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon said that government will table legislation that will see convicted paedophiles being monitored for the rest of their lives. But experts believe that while this is a progressive move on the part of the government, there needs to be more enforcement of the laws already in place.

Dr Luncheon made the disclosure on the legislative changes at his weekly post-Cabinet press briefing held at the Office of the President on Thursday.

At the time he was speaking about the country’s plans for Child Protection Week, which carries the theme, ‘Adults take action against child abuse. The time is now.’ The week of events issponsored by the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security.

Dr Luncheon said that the extant Sexual Offences Act and an amendment to the Prevention of Crimes Act will see paedophiles being subjected to monitoring by the authorities for life if convicted.

He said that Guyana will also tackle all forms of child pornography on the internet and will hold workshops with the Guyana Police Force and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution to sensitize persons about child abuse and its prosecution. He said that the work of the ministry is focused on prevention.

Reacting to the news of the impending legislation, Commissioner on the Women and Gender Equality Commission Nicole Cole said for this law to be truly effective, the Police Force must undergo reform.

However, Cole, also a Commissioner on the Rights of the Child Commission, believes that the focus on prevention is positive since it is a proactive approach, rather than a reactive one.

“While I think this initiative is excellent I am not very enthused about the implementation of this new law without police reform,” she said. “The Discipline Forces recommendations should be adhered to first and we should accept the help of Great Britain,” she said, the latter a reference to the security sector reform project that the government rejected from the British government, citing issues of sovereignty.

She said that the legislation is timely and that the monitoring of paedophiles should occur in countries that are democratic and concerned about the future, as it is the children who would be taking over. “If we are failing to protect children from violence then we are not worthy of being leaders, because children are vulnerable and they depend on us,” she said.

Cole said that child sexual abuse not only damages the child but also the adult that the child becomes. She said that the psychological damage to that child could result in suicide, substance abuse, loss of sexual identity and promiscuity, among other things.

“When there is so much damage the harm is irreparable,” Cole said. “In the worst case scenario the child could grow up to be a perpetrator of sexual abuse against children,” she said.

Cole pointed to a Guyana Human Rights Association study which said that just one per cent of rape cases ends in conviction. “What we have in Guyana is a conditioning to accept paedophilic behaviour as normal, and that is wrong,” she said.

She wants to see the day when a medical report would be enough to secure a conviction in a rape case, notwithstanding the fact that someone may not want to give evidence in the case.

“I am for the implementation of laws. We could have the best laws but if we don’t have implementation where are we going?” asked Cole. “Our children are being raped with impunity because our laws are impotent. There is no punishment for the crime. There must be punishment for crimes against children,” she said. She added that the lack of punishment meted out to the rapists sends the message that this behaviour is normal.

Speaking on the issue, human rights activist Vidyaratha Kissoon said that there is an international trend for perpetrators of sexual offences to be monitored but he pondered whether this was enough.

“We have very low conviction rates, we know the problems of getting convictions,” Kissoon said. “While monitoring is good we need to understand what must be done with the justice system to see higher convictions,” he said. “Our problem is that laws are not implemented and we have a weak police force. We have a lot of work to do with our existing systems to ensure such persons are brought to justice,” Kissoon said.

Kissoon is also of the view that monitoring must go together with rehabilitation. “We should investigate whether monitoring of paedophiles has helped to prevent further sexual crimes against children,” Kissoon said.