EDITORIAL
Recently in Barbados, the spotlight was placed on the persistent problem of violence against women, during the opening of an art exhibition at UN House.
The World Bank, UN Women and Interarts with the support of the European Union, teamed up to host the exhibition in the framework of the 16 Days of Activism campaign, as well as the EU-funded Interarts Project “DECIDES Caribbean”. Sadly, it was during that event that it was noted that a regional report, which was launched during the same 16 Days of Activism campaign by UN Women and the UN Development Programme (UNDP), found that assaults on women persist in the region, despite severe laws aimed at curbing this phenomenon. As such, a call was made for the strengthening of “gender-based violence prevention and response efforts” in Barbados and across the region and rightly so.
It is time that we pay more attention to this issue of violence against women and even girls, and work hard at the prevention aspect, rather than seek to address the problem when it has already gotten out of hand. We have seen one too many occasions here in Barbados, where women attempting to break free of an abusive, controlling relationship, are harassed, stalked, threatened and even killed by their male partners. So we clearly have to do more to address this issue and we can start by better educating our young girls on how to value themselves and how to identify and avoid relationships that you can clearly see that a partner is likely to become a potential batterer.
Now with regard to the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence campaign, Barbados did well in its part to support such an initiative, being pushed by the United Nations (UN). UNiTE leads the campaign, which aims to raise public awareness and mobilise people everywhere to bring about change. Those 16 days go from November 2 to December 10, which is Human Rights Day. So we have just concluded the celebration of the campaign, held under the theme “Leave no one behind: end violence against women and girls”. However, the fight still continues.
As the UN notes, “Achieving gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls will require more vigorous efforts, including legal frameworks, to counter deeply rooted gender-based discrimination that often results from patriarchal attitudes and related social norms.” The UN has also presented some intolerable facts, which we here in the Caribbean can relate to and even draw from.
According to the UN, on the basis of data from 2005 to 2016 for 87 countries, 19 per cent of women between 15 and 49 years of age said they had experienced physical and/or sexual violence by an intimate partner in the 12 months prior to the survey. In the most extreme cases, such violence can lead to death, the UN further notes, adding that in 2012, almost half of all women who were victims of intentional homicide world-wide, were killed by an intimate partner or family member, compared to six per cent of male victims. Here in Barbados, Mary Alison McLean, UN Women Multi-Country Office Caribbean Representative has however noted that violence against women is not inevitable and she does have a point. She pointed to a few solutions which should be embraced and endorsed by the relevant authorities and agencies and these include making use of “a comprehensive approach that includes laws, along with decisive implementation to protect women and girls from violence; prevention that starts at an early age to instil a culture of zero tolerance in youth; and comprehensive services accessible to all survivors, including medical and psychological support, housing, legal advice etc”. Now we couldn’t agree more.