In sheer frustration, I had given up advocacy on behalf of battered women and turned my attention to child rights. Recent events cause me to break my self-imposed silence to make a few points. It is a fundamental principle that, as a general rule, "there should not be joint counselling of parties where there is a history of spousal violence."
Even where the victim is willing, even trained counsellors should not engage in such counselling unless the victim has had empowerment counselling, there has been an assessment of the risks involved, and provisions made to ensure safety of the victim. It was distressing to learn of the murder of Fabiola Chacon which occurred at the church where she and her spouse were allegedly receiving joint counselling.
Were the pastors conducting the joint counselling aware of the guiding principles? Did they have the specialist training to conduct such counselling? Did they assess the risk involved and prepare accordingly? If not, and they did so engage, it was a dangerous intervention and Fabiola paid the ultimate price for their well-intentioned but inadvisable action.
There are many instances where women are murdered or kill their alleged perpetrators after making reports to the police about spousal violence. These incidents continue to take place despite the great deal of time and money spent by international agencies and local NGOs to train our police to respond to domestic violence.
I recommend that our Domestic Violence Act be amended to include a provision, similar to that in The Bahamas Domestic Violence (Protection Orders) Act, which requires police officers intervening in incidents of domestic violence to prepare a report of the allegations made by the people concerned and their witnesses and to detail the type of investigation conducted and how the incident was resolved.
The police must be held accountable for their action or inaction which, too often, have had fatal consequences for one or both parties in situations of spousal violence.
To combat the frequent complaint by the police of the victim's recanting of a report, I recommend training for the police in the dynamics of domestic violence so they would respond with understanding of the psychological and socio-economic challenges of victims.
I strongly advocate the inclusion in our law, as in The Bahamas law, of provisions for a court to make a protection order where it considers it just to do so, upon the evidence presented, notwithstanding the absence of oral testimony of the victim, and for the court to receive into evidence a signed statement given to the police by the victim.
Government needs to invest more heavily in safe houses for victims. Too much is being left to the NGOs. The cost of violence to the victims and secondary victims, in particular the children, parents and siblings of victims, and to the society demands that action be taken now. How many more must die?
Finally, I recommend that, instead of the Family Court declining "stand-alone" domestic violence complaints, that court personnel receive training in domestic violence and deal with such matters.
Hazel Thompson-Ahye