The Tribune

By JADE RUSSELL 

Tribune Staff Reporter 

jrussell@tribunemedia.net

AN advocate for criminalising marital rape is disturbed by the Davis administration’s lack of progress on legislation.

Lisa Bostwick-Dean, vice president of Women United, noted that although religious groups opposed cannabis bills, the administration passed the legislation but has not moved on marital rape, which some Christian leaders also oppose.

She said: “While we make no comment as an organisation on the marijuana bill as it’s not one of the items on our agenda, we did take note that the government took steps to present that bill to Parliament for passage, despite the fact that there was some resistance by the Christian Council and others. We wish that the government had the same level of commitment to women in The Bahamas.”

She said that she personally supports the decriminalisation of small amounts of marijuana. 

In 2022, the Davis administration released a Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill for consultation. The bill would let the law recognise rape as an act that could happen within a marriage.

Successive administrations have pledged to criminalise marital rape but failed to do so.

Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis in April noted that criminalising marital rape was not a priority in his administration’s pre-election manifesto, Blueprint for Change.

“They have backed off of it,” Mrs Bostwick-Dean said. “But then proceeded to push through the marijuana bill in face of objection by much of the same elements of our society who objected to the passage of laws to protect married women from rape.”