Attorney General, Senator and Minister of Legal Affairs, Ryan Pinder KC, during his budget contribution in the Senate on June 20, 2024. Photo: Dante Carrer/Tribune Staff
By LEANDRA ROLLE
Tribune Chief Reporter
lrolle@tribunemedia.net
ATTORNEY General Ryan Pinder said last night that he does not expect the Davis administration to introduce legislation to criminalise marital rape before the end of its term.
The administration drafted a bill in 2022 to criminalise marital rape and released it for consultation. However, no progress has been made since then.
When asked if the government plans to table the bill before the term ends, Mr Pinder, speaking at the closing session of the University of The Bahamas’ Law Society Legal Week 2025, said: “I don’t think so. I think you would’ve heard the panel discuss about the political impacts on that.”
When pressed on whether the administration was prioritising votes over the legislation, Mr Pinder said every government that has proposed such a bill has faced the same concern.
“There’s nothing unique about this,” he added. “There’s a reason why no administration has passed and every single administration has drafted a bill – every single one. I have them all.”
The Bahamas is one of the few countries in the region to explicitly exclude marital rape from its definition of rape, except where spouses are legally separated or subject to separation proceedings.
A 2023 University of The Bahamas study found that 30 percent of Bahamian women were victims of rape in a long-term relationship, and over 50 percent of adults favoured changing the law to remove the marital exception in cases of rape.
Successive administrations have pledged to criminalise marital rape, but failed to do so.
Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis said last year that criminalising marital rape was not a priority for his administration.
Comments
birdiestrachan 1 month ago
A divorce or separation is necessary. They can not live in the same house sleep in the same bed and have a court case
ExposedU2C 1 month ago
The flip side of your most absurd position is that a husband is entitled to forcibly rape his wife anytime he chooses to do so with complete impunity.
I have amended the traditional wedding vow below to accommodate your pathetic position on the matter of marital rape:
“I, _, take thee, ___, to be my wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, AND TO FORCIBLY RAPE WHENEVER I SEE FIT, till death do us part.”
The amended wording no doubt makes a genuine sicko like yourself feel so very happy.
Like corrupt PM Davis, Doofus AG Pinder obviously wants the ability to rape his wife whenever the mood suits him. Only a despicable husband wants to hide behind marriage as a shield for harmfully raping his wife, whether the resulting injurious harm to her be physical or mental.
No right minded woman should vote for either a PLP or FNM candidate in the next general election. Pintard failed miserably to keep the public's attention focused on this matter which is so vitally important for all women.
bahamianson 1 month ago
Lazy , lazy , lazy. I guess this topic doesn’t bring government money or politicians, family, friends and lovers money , that is why it can’t become law. Government can make a law in a week , if it wanted to. We see it all the time. Nothing is impossible or expensive, if you want it.
birdiestrachan 1 month ago
When they go to the court from the same house and the same car dressed in the same colours. . If they are separated yes.otherwise.it is a waste of the courts time. I SAY YES YOU SAY NO where does the truth lie..
ExposedU2C 1 month ago
You're obviously not the least bit acquainted with the laws against marital rape that have long existed in most civilized societies around the world. Either that or you are truly just a ChiCom bot possessing intelligence of the most devious 'artificial' kind as opposed to the 'real' kind. If you were one or knew one of the many thousands of sexually abused women in our country today you would be singing an entirely different song.
Your efforts to have such a harmful act cast aside by our legal system as an inherently unprovable "I say, you say" matter only serves to speak volumes about your level of disgraceful ignorance. Yup, in my mind you're right down there at the bottom of the dumpster with the likes of corrupt and scummy PM Davis and our incompetent and doofus AG Pinder who shamelessly does PM Davis's bidding no matter what the harmful consequences are for our society.
It does not help that Pinder was recently overheard saying that this is a matter that should be left for the FNM to deal with as if conceding the PLP are not going to win the next election. Talk about a heartless and cowardly act of passing a politically hot potato to the next government.
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