THE world watched in horror recently as an American mother of three recounted, with the aid of a video-recording, the nightmare she was forced to live through for 14 long years at the hands of her husband, a man she once thought of as the love of her life.

What was even more galling, as well as disturbing, about the whole affair was hearing in the background of the videotape the couple's eldest son, who was the one who took the footage at his father's behest, making little commentaries about his mother that were not at all complimentary to her, and generally supporting his father.

This was vintage Oprah! in all its resplendent glory, as inch by painstaking inch the undisputed 'Queen of Talk Show' prised the gory details out of her guest.

He liked recording these little sessions he'd have with his wife from time to time, did the cocky little fiend, so he could play it back in his spare time to hear how he sounded. On this particular occasion, which occurred one Sunday afternoon some time in 2003, he opted for the video camera, but only because he couldn't find his prized little tape recorder.

With his then 13-year-old son behind the camera and his younger son, just eight at the time, an unwilling audience, he proceeded to launch into his usual tirade, raining down invective after invective among other forms of abuse upon his hapless wife as she stood cowering before him, not daring to say a word in her defense for fear of antagonizing him even further.

The onslaught lasted all of 51 minutes. In all, he called her "stupid" 23 times, and "heifer" 28 times. And, for what? All she'd asked him was whether he wanted sandwiches for lunch.

Thankfully, he was put away for 36 years, reputedly the longest sentence ever handed down for this type of domestic violence, not on the strength of the video recording, which, damning though it was, is just a misdemeanour assault under US law and only carries a one-year sentence, but because her boss had cared for her enough to document the many injuries she had sustained over the years.

The World At A Glance

According to the UN, violence against women (VAW) ? which encompasses such issues as Domestic Violence; Rape; Harm-ful Traditional Practices such as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), Dowry Murder, Honour Killings, and Early Marriage; and Traffick-ing in Women and Girls ? is a universal problem of such epidemic proportions it is considered the most pervasive form of human rights violation known today.

To quote UNIFEM (United Nations Development Fund for Women) Executive Director, Dr Noeleen Heyzer: "Gender-based violence knows no colour nor nationality. It devastates lives and fractures communities, impeding development in every nation. In every country, the well-being, promise and gifts of millions of women and girls are destroyed by violence."

Violence against women is also said to be a major cause of death and disability among women between the ages of 16 and 44. "It is as serious a cause of death and incapacity among women of reproductive age as cancer, and a greater cause of ill-health than traffic accidents and malaria combined," Dr Heyzer is quoted as saying in one of her myriad speeches addressing the issue.

And, to give you an idea of what it can mean to a country from an economic standpoint, the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in its 2003 Report averaged that intimate partner violence alone costs the United States government in excess of US$5.8 billion annually, with the majority, a whopping US$4.1 billion, going towards direct medical and health care services. Loss of productivity is said to account for close to US$1.8 billion.

In the case of Domestic Violence, UNIFEM, which agency is directly responsible for women's rights and gender equality, contends that in no country in the world are women safe from this type of abuse. It supports this argument by citing a WHO (World Health Organisation) survey which found that more than 50 per cent of the women in four out of the ten countries in which the study was done were regularly subjected to physical or sexual violence by their intimate partners. In rural Ethiopia, one of the countries in which the survey was conducted, the figure was as high as 71 per cent.

An earlier study, also conducted by WHO, puts the number of women that were physically abused by their partners or ex-partners at 30 and 22 per cent in the United Kingdom and the United States respectively. Oprah Winfrey, however, put the latter figure to closer to 25 per cent recently when she said that one out of every four women in America was abused by their partners. She made this observation in the May 8 edition of the Oprah Winfrey Show, which is when the story at reference earlier in this report was aired.

And, based on data gathered from around the world, UNIFEM says, half the number of women who die annually by homicide are being killed by their current or former husbands or boyfriends. Again, according to recent studies conducted in São Paulo, Brazil, homicide accounts for 13 per cent of the recorded deaths among women of a reproductive age. In 60 per cent of the cases, it has been said, those murders were committed by the victims' own partners.

And, in reports out of Afghanistan, of the 1,327 incidences of violence against women reported between January 2003 and June 2005, 36 proved fatal, with close to half being at the hands of the men in their lives.

The Domestic Situation

Here in Guyana, the forecast is no less bleak, judging from the figures coming out of Help and Shelter, a non-governmental organization (NGO) founded here in 1995 specifically to address the issue of Violence against Women in all its forms.

For instance, for the month of April alone, the agency has fielded as many as 69 calls through its hotline service, and according to coordinator, Ms Margaret Kertzious, the majority of those calls had to do with complaints about domestic violence and child abuse.

And, of the 68 new cases the agency has handled over the same period, 55 pertained to spousal abuse. Of that number, 35 involved the use of physical violence. Spousal abuse matters also accounts for more than half the total number of new clients the agency has either counseled or helped in whatever way it could for the year to date, which, up to the month of April, stood at 242. This time around, in almost 50 per cent of the cases physical violence was used.

According to the records, since the organisation opened its doors back in November 1995 to date, a total of close to 12 years, it has administered to a total of 7,009 persons. Of those cases, a staggering 5,220 were related to spousal abuse. Needless to say, in more than 50 per cent of the cases, physical violence was involved.

The interesting thing in all this ? apart from the fact that race seems to play a big role where domestic violence is concerned, which is only to be expected given our cultural history ? is the realisation, based on the choice occupations many of the clients hold, that no one, not even the high ranking professionals with their big houses and fancy cars nor the women in uniform, is spared the ignominy of being reduced to a child, which is what spousal abuse is essentially all about. This brings to mind the US State Department's Human Rights Report for 2006 which, besides contending for the umpteenth year running that the issue of violence against women was so widespread here it crosses all racial and socioeconomic lines, has local NGOs on record as saying that there is "a widespread perception that some police officers and magistrates could be bribed to make cases of domestic violence 'go away'."

It also notes, rather maliciously one might add, that several prominent figures in politics and society were still able to retain their status "despite widely circulating rumours of their past histories of sexual abuses and domestic violence against women." In its 2005 Report, one of the most significant points the Department had made was that "institutional resistance in all sectors, including law enforcement, the judiciary, and the legal profession seriously contributed to the increase in violence against women."

Kertzious conceded that they were indeed having problems with the courts, particularly with regard to compliance under the Domestic Violence Act, in that she not only felt that there were some clauses in there that needed to be amended but that stiffer laws also needed to be implemented so as to deter the perpetrator. At the rate things are going at present, she said, "they are getting away with murder."

She also touched briefly on the humiliation some victims are made to endure and the disadvantage at which they are placed when they go to Court without a lawyer and the perpetrator has one. She said she knows of cases where victim's protection orders were thrown out of court simply because there was no one there to argue their case on their behalf.

Late last year, while addressing a rally at the Public Buildings to mark International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, Human Services and Social Security Minister, Ms Priya Manickchand had expressed concern about the rising incidence of violent crimes against women here in spite of all that was being done to bring the situation under control, and promised that she would take a tougher stand on the matter. Guyana Review caught up with the minister at her office last Monday to find out whether she had made good on that promise.

The Domestic Violence Act

We began by asking her about the Domestic Violence Act and where she thought it was headed, and the Minister said that while she believes that it is one the best and most comprehensive pieces of legislation in the Caribbean on the issue of domestic violence, she would be the first to admit that it is not being used as effectively as it should.

Pointing to a dire need for regulations under the Act, the minister said that these were currently being drafted in consultation with the relevant stakeholders and should be ready in another two months. Also in train, she said, is what is hoped to be a National Plan on Domestic Violence, and this, too, is currently being finalised preparatory to taking it to Cabinet to seek her colleagues' approval. The government, however, will still need to come up with a viable Plan of Action to implement those policies, since the one does not go without the other, the minister said. While she did not commit to a timeframe when the proposed Plan of Action is expected to come on stream, she did concede that she already has an idea of what it is she wants done, or what it is that needs to be done. Little things, she hinted. "Not from a ministerial point of view… but from a legal perspective." One of the key issues that seems to be weighing heavily on her mind is the sloth with which some domestic violence matters are being dealt with in the courts.

"You go to Court, the Act says once you file a matter it must come before the Court within seven days, but nothing mandates the Court to hear it within a certain time. It can well adjourn it for two to three weeks, so it's really just defeating the entire purpose. So the poor woman is left to go back home to the same abusive situation and a husband who is even angrier now because she took him to Court. So those are some of the things we have to fix." Another is the triviality with which some Police ranks still treat domestic disputes despite the ongoing training they have been having on how to treat such matters. To wit, domestic violence is now a part of the curriculum in their training programme, the minister said.

"We have to let the Police understand that this is not a private matter," she said. "We still have frequent complaints, too many for me, daily… about Police saying this is a private matter. It is not a private matter; it's a crime against the State…"

Also on the minister's little shopping list are Police stations and their environs that are more conducive to women going there to seek help; a corps of disciplined ranks that will not treat as hilarious other people's misfortunes; and a magistracy that is equal to the task of stepping up and doing what it is they are mandated to do under the Domestic Violence Act.

She's not asking for much, she said. "Little things - like hearing the matter expeditiously. I'm not calling for a result one way or the other; I'm not asking to convict or make these orders; just hear the matter; don't laugh at women when they are relating their stories; don't send them back home to make up."

Noting that she has heard magistrates tell couples: "Y'all go home and mek up; is family t'ing; teeth and tongue must bite," Manickchand, who is a lawyer by trade and is well conversant with the topic at hand having been associated for many years with the Georgetown Legal Aid Clinic, said some of these matters are not as simple as they may seem, and take some doing to understand. They are also supposed to be heard in chambers, and this too, is not being done, which is something that lawyers for the plaintiff ought to insist on, she said. It is their client's right under the Act. "So the Act, as comprehensive as it is, it needs to be strengthened," the minister said. "We need to look at charging persons almost automatically for criminal offences that you can charge people for when they beat up somebody else, although it's their wife… to look at how we can improve the services the Police offers in collaboration with the Force and the Ministry of Home Affairs and so on …. look at how we can improve the service given by the Courts," she posited.

Asked whether there was a maximum penalty involved which could serve as a deterrent to the perpetrator, the minister that unfortunately this was not possible due to the way the Act was crafted. Under the Domestic Violence Act, she explained, proceedings are quasi-criminal. This means that there are no penalties involved but rather orders that can be made - like an occupation order; or a protection order; a tenancy order; a restriction to distance order, meaning that you cannot come within so many feet of a person. Mind you, she said, there are criminal prosecutions that can be had for the same offences, but those can only brought about by the Police. Another infraction of the law that she is giving serious thought to as to how to address it, the minister said, is the one whereby magistrates are still insisting that plaintiffs must have a lawyer when the Act says differently.

"This is madness! The Act clearly states that you don't need a lawyer; it was made in that way so it can be user-friendly. A lot of women who suffer the kind of abuse we're talking about are women who are poor or cannot afford legal services. This means that since they cannot afford a private lawyer, their access to justice is being denied. And that is crazy, because the Act provides for that kind of situation. Those are the things we'd like to sensitise people about."

Asked to share with us some of the more memorable of her experiences during her tenure at 'Legal Aid', the minister said the one that readily sprang to mind was the alarming number of men who use sex as either a weapon to exact revenge or as a show of power, and the frequency with which they did so. What was even more cause for alarm, she said, was the prevalent use of unnatural sex acts as punishment for something or the other, or just plain out rape. "You go home, she didn't cook, you end up in a quarrel, you throw her on the bed and you rape her." It is with these things in mind, she said, that two months ago she contracted someone to draft a 'White Paper' on sexual offences. That document is almost ready, and within two weeks of having it in her hand they will be ready to begin the consultation process, which procedure she hopes the public will come out fully and support.

Looking back, she said the horror stories were so many and varied, one had to literally close one's mind to what one was hearing just to get through the day. But the thing that got to her most is that after going through all the things they did, yet still there were a lot of women who were willing to put everything behind them and start afresh. It was rather frustrating in the beginning, she said, especially after all the hard work, not to mention sleepless nights, it took to prepare them to get their day in court.

But with the passage of time, she soon came to understand how they felt, particularly with regard to the emotional pull they may have had for the other party involved.

Today, this is one of the things she is working on; how to help those women to break that pull and move on with their lives. And this calls for putting in place some more support mechanisms. This is in addition to the half-way house, counseling, and other services her ministry offers through Help and Shelter and other like-minded organizations and agencies.

"That is the kind of change we need to start working towards. I can't say for sure that I have all the answers now….I wouldn't be so presumptuous as to say that. But I know some education in those departments is definitely needed…not the usual 'domestic violence is bad kind of thing …it has to be something more substantial…we have to find another way of addressing this almost cultural pattern of persons getting abused and going back into the same situation. Long ago you didn't have a choice ….there was no Law…nobody bothered with you. Now you do; and people are still doing it; so we need to examine that to find out why."