PRIME Minister Philip “Brave” Davis. Photo: Dante Carrer
By JADE RUSSELL
Tribune Staff Reporter
jrussell@tribunemedia.net
GIVING no firm indication that his administration will criminalise marital rape, Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis suggested yesterday that divorce is the solution for women who believe their spouse has raped them.
Mr Davis also noted that criminalising marital rape was not a priority listed in his administration’s pre-election manifesto, Blueprint for Change.
He confirmed the government had not gotten around to dealing with a draft amendment to the Sexual Offences Act that would remove language indicating that rape cannot be committed against one’s spouse.
Insisting he is not insensitive to the issue, he said: “My thing is that the time when, any time, a couple was married in a blissful marriage reach the stage where they’re going to report their husband for rape, it seemed to me that marriage was irretrievably broken down, meaning that they’re no longer married even though it may not have been so pronounced by a court.”
Asked about making it easier for people to get a divorce, Mr Davis said the divorce process could already be “easy”.
“In so far as making it easier to have a divorce in those certain situations, the law is there, it could be easy,” he said. “The problem is that most women they’re abused in the sense that the abuse itself sort of disarmed them, disarmed them from moving forward because of another fear, the fear of surviving what will happen if I divorce.”
Mr Davis said the government is creating mechanisms to ensure that such people will be provided with a “safety net” to survive on their own.
He said judicial challenges prevent people from finalising divorces as quickly as they should, adding that when he practised law, several divorces could be settled in a week depending on the judge and the case circumstances.
“In fact, technology, to my mind, has really slowed down the process in the administration of justice,” he said. “But we have to find an answer to that. I’m, in fact, meeting with the officials in the judiciary to see how we could speed up those things.”
Bahamas Crisis Centre director Sandra Dean-Patterson recently said the laws relating to protecting women victims of marital rape are inadequate.
Comments
Sickened 1 week, 3 days ago
I'm seriously wondering if Davis has actually lived here and socialized with any Bahamians since his birth. What he is saying is absolute nonsense. Our divorce laws are grotesquely ancient and to call that a 'solution' for rape is ignorant to the extreme. He needs to have a brain scan done to see if there is any functioning grey matter left in his cranium.
birdiestrachan 1 week, 3 days ago
marital rape law goes back to 93- 92 the FNM did not pass a marital rape law the devil is in the details marriage is a sacrament between two people when that changes the marriage is over
John 1 week, 3 days ago
What is the difference between rape and a spouse ‘failing or not wanting to submit?’ RAPE is defined as a crime of violence and not one not necessarily for sexual gratification. And Moses granted divorce because of the hardening of man’s heart. It is better for two people to separate ( divorce) than to stay together and kill or seriously injure each other. The persons pushing this marital rape bill doesn’t want a law against rape, they want a law that protects them when they fail to submit. They want a law that protects them and demonizes their spouses when they refuses to carry out their spousal duties. Gives them the right to lock their spouse out of the matrimonial bed and bed under the fear of being raped. If a a spouse is willing to send one of the parents of their children to jail, then there is no longer any love in that marriage. Divorce would be more honorable.
Bobsyeruncle 1 week, 3 days ago
Sorry PM, birdie & John, but solutions are meant to prevent something from happening. Getting divorced because of marital rape doesn't prevent the rape from happening in the first place.
John 1 week, 2 days ago
So how that having a rape law that has the potential to ‘entrap’ more innocent spouses prevent rape. Obviously you didn’t read the bill or the versions. If a spouse is to the point of calling the police and having the spouse arrested, locked up and charged with rape, that marriage is over. So if it is dissolved then unless the accused spouse is a serial rapist then he wouldn’t put himself in a position to be accused of rape by his ex wife. And since they are no longer in a relationship, if sex does happen and she claims it is rape, then the rape kit evidence should be in her favor
LastManStanding 1 week, 2 days ago
The problem with this topic is that most Bahamians are not capable of discussing it logically and separated from emotion. Rape between two strangers is simple to prove, 1.) there will be physical signs of a struggle 2.) there will be DNA of some sort left behind after the act. The problem with proving marital rape (and rape where there is any sort of established relationship) is that the first proof is often lacking with these claims, and the second alone isn't sufficient to prove that rape occurred if there aren't other concurrent signs (documented history of abuse, physical signs of struggle, injuries etc.). Davis is correct, divorce is simply the best solution that doesn't run the risk of unjustly imprisoning an innocent man. With a crime as heinous as rape, the burden of proof has to be exponentially higher and the testimony of the victim alone is not enough to fairly convict someone. It's not like the courts are in any way favourable to men, a woman, even without the claim of rape, should be able to secure custody of any children and associated support and alimony with relative ease. It really is the most convenient solution to this issue but people do not want to think logically regarding this matter.
TalRussell 1 week, 2 days ago
A premiership that doesn't understand what rejection can do to the womans' --- During by-election and general election periods'. --- Good Day!
Sickened 1 week, 2 days ago
To get a divorce here someone needs to be at fault - and therein lies the problem. A wife that is being forced to have sex with her husband cannot use this as a reason for divorce as our courts don't see that as a valid reason - because our laws state that married women have to submit to their husbands at all times.
ExposedU2C 1 week, 2 days ago
OMG !!!!!
By saying divorce is a solution for marital rape, Davis has finally confessed his shameful and most disgusting belief that marriage permits a physically stronger husband to rape his physically weaker wife whenever he chooses to do so.
All married women in the Bahamas should be outraged and demand that he immediately be removed the office of prime minister through a vote of no confidence brought and supported by all sitting MPs in the HOA.
I pray all the major media outlets around the world get whiff of and report on Davis's outright confession of his utterly disgraceful belief that a husband is fully entitled to rape his wife.
avidreader 1 week, 2 days ago
Don't be a woke fool. He never said that. The problem lies in the matter of evidence and proof. You are walking a very dangerous tightrope when two people are living together and one accuses the other of a violent crime that should require a high standard of proof. In the old days more than one woman discovered the efficacy of a pot of boiling grits accurately aimed.
ExposedU2C 1 week, 1 day ago
He said exactly that in more ways than one and you know it.
You and Davis clearly believe that a woman upon marriage is somehow transformed into "property" of the husband whereby she can be used and abused as he sees fit with impunity. That's just a plain sick line of thinking by many men in our society that you and Davis are wrongly trying to preserve.
Porcupine 1 week, 1 day ago
Does this article, and the comments, not prove that we have a few generations of much needed higher education to solve the least of our problems, let alone the more urgent? Without, for sure, of the needed time to do so. Becoming a lawyer does not mean becoming educated. It means job training. Nothing more. This country is lost, ignorant and corrupt to the core. We get the politicians we deserve.
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