Acting Chancellor of the Judiciary Carl Singh yesterday admonished magistrates to handle domestic violence cases in a timely manner to save lives, while emphasising that the key objectives of the court are to help improve victim safety and enhance offender accountability.
Justice Singh, who said domestic violence is at an all-time high in Guyana, was at the time addressing magistrates, judges, lawyers, state and police prosecutors and members of women’s rights groups at the start of a two-day colloquium on Gender, Domestic Violence and the Courts at the Georgetown Club.
Court sessions across the country were closed yesterday to allow members of the judiciary to attend the programme, which was launched by the Supreme Court and the UN Entity for Gender, Equality and Women’s Empowerment (UN Women).
The Chancellor said that in recent times, he has been reading the headlines of the daily newspapers with shock, as they highlight brutal acts being committed against women. He said these stories tell us that domestic violence, in its most brutal form, is at an all-time high in Guyana. He added that the programme is occurring at the ideal time and will provide members of the magistracy with exposure to the phenomenon and the important role that they have to play in dealing with it.
In the past, he noted, incidents of domestic violence were largely seen as private and, particularly in outlying areas, the normal police response to complaints had been to advise the victim to go home and make up. On occasions, too, he said, male police officers were readily advising female victims as to how best to achieve this make up with their violence-prone partners.
Justice Singh reminded those in attendance that there have been substantial efforts to educate the police on the way to deal with such reports. “If it is that the private attitude matter still prevails at some level, that can only be seen by an abusive partner as a licence to continue with and to perpetuate the disruptive harmful behaviour,” he said.
He further used the occasion to remind all, including the police, of the provision of the constitution which guarantees victims of gender discrimination and domestic violence, “life, liberty, security of the person, equality before the law and the protection of the law.”
Of equal importance to the investigatory prosecutorial role of the police, Justice Singh said, is the role played by the courts, particularly the magistrate’s courts, with respect to domestic violence cases. “The key objective of the court should be to help improve victim safety and enhance offender accountability,” he stressed.
Justice Singh added that there have been reports of a violation of statutory procedure with respect to hearings related to domestic violence cases. “There have been reports of inappropriate remarks and comments to victims in such cases emanating from the magisterial bench and in some instances there have been reports of a lack of consideration for the often times delicate and sensitive nature of domestic violence complaints,” he said.
‘Special needs’
While noting that he is not an expert on domestic violence issues, Justice Singh said there is enough information to suggest that domestic violence complaints cannot be treated like assault reports. “Courts should recognise that complaints in domestic violence cases have special needs and concerns,” he said, explaining that for females, it is often the case that they are dependent on these abusive partners for, among other things, financial assistance.
He said these are all circumstances which call for special sensitivity by magistrates, while noting that the scheme of the domestic legislation must provide magistrates with a range of options to quickly and appropriately provide for the safety of the complainant.
Justice Singh pointed out that all are aware that delays in appropriate intervention by the court allows more time to an abuser to influence, persuade and eventually convince the victim to become uncooperative. He said eventually, the complainant decides not to pursue the complaint and before long is again attacked.
He urged magistrates to demonstrate “…a sensitivity for the particular nature of domestic violence cases and to act therein with a significant degree of promptitude and timeliness, because timely intervention can save lives or prevent serious bodily injury.”
However, in making timely and appropriate interventions, he said, the court often has to perform a delicate balancing act. The imposition of a statutorily-prescribed measure can sometimes do more harm than good, he explained, while adding that an interim protection order or eventual custodial terms can be extremely disruptive to family relations and can cause immense strain on the circumstances of a family.
Justice Singh noted that proper consideration should be given to the circumstances presented to the court and appropriate orders that would guard against recurring violence should be considered.
Turning his attention to the state, Justice Singh stressed that it has an important role to play in the whole issue of domestic violence. “The provision of effective social services to victims and families affected by domestic violence must be seen as a principal obligation of the state in its endeavour to curb this phenomenon, where in such circumstances the state is able to meet the basic needs of victims and families affected by domestic violence,” he said. In this regard, he noted that such availability may allow the court to give full effect to the law so that its orders could have a deterrent effect on offenders or potential offenders.
Gender discrimination, he later noted, is an area of law that does not come regularly before judges. He said he did not believe gender discrimination is an area as actively presented to the court by lawyers, although it does not mean that Guyana does not have this problem. He noted that this may be as a result of the “uninformed and uneducated” informing affected persons of their rights, or that members of the practicing bar are not rising to the challenge when the opportunity arises.
Singh said it was his hope that the colloquium would identify new and meaningful methods and strategies to deal with cases of domestic violence and gender discrimination. He said he expected to see meaningful and adequate protection, as far as the law permits, for victims of domestic violence at the earliest stage of the court process. He said he would also like to see magistrates display awareness and sensitivity of the special nature of this issue; as well as an understanding by judges and magistrates of the way domestic violence hurts and harms children; consistency in the treatment of parties before the courts; the implementation of more effective mechanisms which hold offenders accountable for the abuse; and improved efforts at the level of the court to create greater public confidence that the justice system is responding effectively to gender issues and domestic violence.
Frontline
Meanwhile, Roberta Clarke, an attorney-at-law and the regional director of UN Women, noted that magistrates are on the frontline of prevention, protection and punishment of domestic violence. “How you do your job matters. [It] makes a difference between protection and abuse; it makes the difference between ease of mind and spirit and oppression; it makes a difference between life and …death and it certainly makes a difference between accountability and impunity,” she stated.
She noted that magistrates are the distributors and the appliers of law and the guardians of public trust in the rule of law and natural justice. She added that magistrates are called upon to solve problems.
“Therefore understanding the social and cultural dimensions of our society is very important if we are to ensure that the justice system is responsive and contributes to the enlargement of freedom and social justice,” she noted.
Clarke said that each time a woman is murdered in the context of domestic violence, we ask ourselves many questions but what we do know generally is that many women refuse to invoke the legal system.
She told the gathering that domestic violence occurs in the most private of spaces. “Being a victim of domestic violence makes [women] ashamed, humiliated and fearful for their lives. It makes many women pity the men they are with… use of the court system, then, for women, is an emotionally complex and very difficult thing to do,” she added.
Moreover, she said, the statistics in the Guyana suggest that women are not using the court system for a variety of reasons, including inaccessibility, as many live in geographically-isolated areas; because of the mistaken belief that they need an attorney to go to court; and generally because of a lack of faith in the system.
She said that some drop out of the system for various reasons – they reconcile, due to lack of finance (can’t afford the transportation, attorney fees or to take time off from work) and others because they are just intimidated.
“So let us not underestimate the emotional turmoil that swirls around the victims and families and the impact it has on the ability to organise oneself to wind your way through the complex legal system, especially when there are less than adequate social services available,” she said, while adding that the collective challenge would be to act with due diligence.
She said too that inequality in action is often observed and “if we check on our experiences we know that some are more privileged than others, some have more or less power whether because of income, gender, ethnicity, colour, sexual orientation or disability.”
Clarke said one cannot deny that the reality of violence is a threat to every girl and woman, while adding that they are advised on this issue their whole lives but they take that for granted. She added that the threat of rape is normal and women must adapt to the threat.
At the colloquium, she said there will be discussions on value systems, the aspects of culture that are inimical to citizenship and the enjoyment of human rights as well as the transformative power and potential of court practice.
She noted that the colloquium begins a robust partnership between the Guyana Supreme Court and UN Women, which focuses on the role of the court in accelerating gender equality and gender justice.
