The Tribune

A LOCAL organisation is calling on government to meet its commitments to international treaties and work on ending gender-based violence.

The call came in a statement from Equality Bahamas yesterday in recognition of Femicide Awareness Day, which remembers the women and girls killed because of their sex, and calls for naming, counting, and reporting of such killings as femicide.

Equality Bahamas is also participating in the Global 16 Days campaign, which along with raising awareness about femicide, also has the theme of domestic violence in the workplace.

“At Equality Bahamas, we recognise both themes, and we will carry them into 2022 as we continue to advocate for femicide to be named, counted, and reported, and for The Bahamas to ratify C190,” said Alicia Wallace, director of Equality Bahamas. “Ending gender-based violence requires legislative reform and a gender-responsive approach to policies and programmes.”

Equality Bahamas reminded the government of the ratification of Belém do Pará and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and its obligation to educate the public on them.

The government must meet its commitments, made through treaty bodies, to end gender-based violence, the group said.

“We have had the Strategic Plan to End Gender-based Violence since 2015. Six years later, it has yet to be implemented, and is now in need of an update,” said Ms Wallace. “The Bahamas reported to the CEDAW Committee in 2018, and the committee’s recommendations include implementation of the strategic plan along with acceleration of other key plans, policies, and legislative reform.”

As a matter of priority, marital rape must be criminalised, the group noted.

“Even before the launch of our Strike Five campaign in 2020, we have consistently called for the criminalisation of marital rape,” said Lauren Glinton, campaign coordinator. “Marital rape is rape, and we demand that the government recognise it as such and make the necessary change to Article 3 of the Sexual Offences Act, removing ‘who is not his spouse.’

“For far too long,” Ms Glinton continued, “people have questioned its legitimacy as a public issue, but violence in all forms should be of public concern, regardless of persons’ marital status. It is time to move towards legislative action, and to focus our efforts on prevention.”

The Strategic Plan to End Gender-based Violence, CEDAW, Belém do Pará, criminalisation of marital rape, naming, counting, and reporting on femicide, and ratification of C190 are all necessary for bringing gender-based violence to an end, Equality Bahamas said.

“We urge the government to move on this now. As we have seen in recent weeks, it cannot wait. We have some of the tools already, waiting to be implemented. This is a public issue, and the government is obligated to act,” said Ms Wallace.

Equality Bahamas has already hosted seven events during the campaign.

Today, an event called Reporting on Gender-based Violence and Femicide with Ava Turnquest, Cathy Otten (Journalism Initiative on Gender-based Violence), and Daffodil Altan (FRONTLINE) will take place at 6pm.

Another event, Using Data to End Gender-based Violence will include Aneesah Abdullah (UN Country Coordination Officer, The Bahamas), Melissa Scaia (Global Rights for Women, USA), and Eugenia D’Angelo (MundoSur, Argentina) will take place Tuesday at 6pm. The events will close with Fostering a Culture of Human Rights with human rights expert Gaynel Curry on Thursday at 6pm. All event details, recordings of previous events, and campaign resources are available at tiny.cc/go16.

Equality Bahamas is a feminist organisation that promotes women’s and LGBTQI+ people’s rights as human rights through advocacy, public education and community engagement.