est. 2007

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Domestic Violence: Victim Protection and Intervention

by Felicia Browne and Alicia Nicholls Victims of domestic violence in Barbados are on the verge of receiving greater protection. The Domestic Violence (Protection Orders) Amendment Act, Cap 130A was recently passed by the House of Assembly and is currently before the Senate for debate. The Act, which seeks to make several sweeping changes to…

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by Felicia Browne and Alicia Nicholls

domestic_violenceVictims of domestic violence in Barbados are on the verge of receiving greater protection. The Domestic Violence (Protection Orders) Amendment Act, Cap 130A was recently passed by the House of Assembly and is currently before the Senate for debate. The Act, which seeks to make several sweeping changes to domestic violence protection available to victims, has evoked mostly public approval for the increased protection of women, men and children that are victims of domestic violence. In this article, we will attempt to discuss some of the salient features of the amended Act.

Domestic violence legislative framework

The legislative framework for domestic violence protection in Barbados is based primarily on the Domestic Violence (Protection Orders) Act, Cap 130A, the Sexual Offences Act and the Offences Against the Person Act. The main Act, however, is the Domestic Violence (Protection Orders) Act of 1993 which provides for the granting of protection orders in domestic violence and related matters. Marital rape, however, is covered in the Sexual Offences Act. Barbados has also ratified both the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) on October 16, 1980 and the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication for Violence against Women on May 16, 1995.[1] It should be noted that the domestic violence legislation in Barbados is not limited to violence against women and recognises that men could also be victims of abuse at the hands of a female spouse or partner. A male spouse or partner in a cohabitational or visiting relationship, once falling within the definitions of the Act, may also seek relief under the Act. Additionally, the Act also recognizes that children can be victims of domestic violence.

[1]

http://caribbean.unwomen.org/en/caribbean-gender-portal/caribbean-gbv-law-portal/gbv-country-resources/barbados

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24 responses to “Domestic Violence: Victim Protection and Intervention”

  1. David Avatar
    David

    Congratulations Felicia and Alicia!

    It is refreshing to have commentators willing to collaborate and line up behind a cause with dispassionate analysis of the issues.

  2. Caswell Franklyn Avatar
    Caswell Franklyn

    David

    Please hold your congratulations, this article is nothing more than the misguided brief that was provided to the Government side of the House of Assembly, which lack knowledge of the original legislation in the first place.

    One of the points made in this article is that the amendments did not protect persons living in homosexual relationships. There was no need to amend the act to protect this class of person, they were already protected under the old act. Under the provisions of the 1992 act, everyone living in a household could seek protection under that act. I know of a situation where protection orders were made against a brother and sister, who claimed that one was harassing the other and vice versa.

    I maintain that the amendments were unnecessary but this is what happens when well-intentioned people with connections abuse those connections.

    The amendments make it an offence for persons, who treat or otherwise interact with a child who might be a victim of abuse, not to report the suspected abuse. It did not speak to a situation where the report was made to the Child Care Board and the board refusing to act to protect the child because of budget cuts, like in the case of Jahan King.

    Let me repeat, the act in its ORIGINAL form already covered everybody in a household. I therefore ask how can you increase on everyone.

  3. David Avatar
    David

    @Caswell

    The young ladies have to be congratulated, like you for willing to posit a view in the public domain. We need more of our young people to express themselves publicly.

  4. Caswell Franklyn Avatar
    Caswell Franklyn

    David

    I agree that we need more of our young people to express their views publicly, as long as they are their views. I give no marks when they parrot the views of others, without doing the necessary research. We already have too many of that type in Parliament.

    I encourage young people to speak out but please do so on the basis of knowledge not emotion. Please don’t view this as an attempt to silence them, I want to make them better, but they would not do so if they are complimented for every effort despite quality

  5. chad99999 Avatar
    chad99999

    The UN is an agent of Western imperialism, and once more we see the nonsense of Western feminism infecting Barbadian culture, subordinating the rights of men. Redefinition of marriage (“What is marital rape?”), and limits to the discipline parents can use against their own children in the family home (“domestic violence”).
    In Europe and North America, the concept of marital rape has been used to free women from the most basic obligations to their spouses. They can have their cake and eat it too. Once married, the woman can refuse to have sex with her husband, even though this is the principal reason for the marriage contract.. If he forces the issue, he can be prosecuted as a rapist. If he divorces the treacherous female, she still has the right to take up to half his wealth “because she is his wife”. This one-sided legal reasoning is the typical “justice” men get in a feminist society. What’s hers is hers, What’s his is negotiable. Watch out, men. You are being screwed by feminists like Felicia.

  6. caribbeantradelaw Avatar
    caribbeantradelaw

    @David, many thanks! We hope this will help clear up some of the misunderstandings about the amended Act.

  7. caribbeantradelaw Avatar
    caribbeantradelaw

    @Caswell, just to set the record straight. This article was a product of research. We read and compared both the existing Act and the amendment bill, as well as UN reports on legislative good practices in regards to domestic violence protection. You may disagree with our views and you are perfectly entitled to your opinion, but there is no need to falsely imply that our views are merely parroted and that we did not do the requisite research.

  8. St George's Dragon Avatar
    St George’s Dragon

    Not sure about this: http://www.hud.ac.uk/news/2016/january/400000euseriousgamesprojecttocombatdomesticviolence.php
    Will it achieve anything?

  9. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    “This will fund a multi-faceted investigation of domestic violence in the Caribbean countries of Grenada and Barbados. The research will be mirrored in the UK by another member of the team, Gill Kirkman, (pictured far right) who is Subject Leader in Social Work at the University’s School of Human and Health Sciences. Also taking part in the project is Reader in Criminal Psychology Dr Daniel Boduszek.

    ► Pictured (l-r) Professor Minhua Ma, Professor Adele Jones and senior lecturer Gill Kirkman

    Data will be used to develop an interactive, role-playing computer game designed to educate and influence attitude change among potential perpetrators of violence while seeking to empower those who are at risk of victimisation.”

    The above copied from Wily’s post…..at this stage they have to try everything, too many backward people with myopic views are in charge, the situation has become critical, education has done nothing for them, hence the present chaos and stupidity being publicly displayed by those who are paid to protect and make things better.

  10. Zoe Avatar
    Zoe

    No man has any right to hit, strike, or beat a woman; however, there are many underlying reasons, explanations, NOT justification, for why some men are driven to violence against their spouse, girlfriend, and none of this is being discussed, it is automatically presumed that the man, just decides, without any cause whatsoever, to beat his woman.

    Women, many of them, can be extremely provocative towards their men; NO matter how good the man is towards his woman, NO matter what he gives or does for her, she is never pleased or satisfied, because, it is extremely difficult to please a woman.

    The Creator of us ALL, in His Word, the Bible, says:

    ” Better to dwell in the wilderness, Than with a CONTENTIOUS and angry woman.” (Prov. 21:19)

    “It is better to dwell in a corner of a housetop, Than in a house shared with a CONTENTIOUS woman. ” (Prov. 25: 24) Emphasis added

    Women, generally, regardless of their social,educational, or ethnic background, in this materialistic world, are for the most part, Confused, Miserable, Moody, Domineering, and Unpleaseable,

    Only a man given over to Christ, controlled and led by The Holy Spirit, could refrain from being driven by many Miserable Woman, not to strike out at them, which is WRONG, but understandable, but NEVER justifiable!

  11. chad99999 Avatar
    chad99999

    There is plenty of empirical evidence to show that (a) women are as likely as men to initiate acts of violence against a spouse, and (b) if the woman loses a fight she started, the man is blamed and shamed by police as a perpetrator.
    This one-sided idea of “justice” creates a two-tier society, where women have rights and men have responsibilities, and where the power of the state is used by women against men. Barbadian men are utterly foolish to allow these feminists to turn them into the frightened pantywaists that many men in Europe and North America have become. We are seeing an inversion of the natural order, with men being intimidated and feminized by the widespread adoption of feminist ideology in the courtroom.
    Bajan men, stop these idiot lawyers from perverting the society.

  12. David Avatar
    David

    @chadd9999

    What is preventing men from mobilizing to champion their concerns? It is a mans world after all!

  13. chad99999 Avatar
    chad99999

    It is not a man’s world. You are out of date. Most elites are full of “men” like you. You pander to the feminists and surrender male interests to the likes of Felicia and Alicia. For shame.

  14. David Avatar
    David

    @chadd9999

    And you have arrived at your conclusion based on what again?

  15. chad99999 Avatar
    chad99999

    There are many indicators of the shift in the balance of power. Women now make up the majority of high performers in high schools across the Western world. Women are the majority of enrolled students at Western universities, form the majority of students at the law schools, business schools, graduate schools of humanities and social sciences, etc. Only in physics, chemistry and engineering do men still outnumber women, and that advantage is disappearing because of special recruitment programs for women in these fields.
    In North America, the average starting salaries for female graduates now exceed those of similarly situated males. Women have always lived longer than men and enjoyed more leisure than men, but now, under “equal-pay” laws throughout the Western world, they are being paid “the same” as men for office jobs that are much easier to do than the so-called “equivalent” jobs men have in difficult and dangerous industries like construction and security.
    In fact, the entire legal system is heavily weighted in favour of women. In criminal cases, women receive lighter sentences than men because they are not perceived as dangerous. In family courts, virtually every decision favours women over men, etc.
    In most countries, men must bear the risk and sacrifice of fighting to defend the country, while women have no responsibility to do anything. Yet they have all the rights men have, plus advantages from “affirmative action” programs that compensate them for imaginary past “oppression,” (the false narratives of feminism have re-interpreted the facts of previous decades when women were exalted as goddesses on pedestals and were protected from the dangers of industrial society). I could go on, but you get the point.

  16. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    Chad….aren’t you glad that a woman gave birth to you….without that power, you would not be here, live with it, because you can no longer live without it.

  17. chad99999 Avatar
    chad99999

    Without my father’s sperm, plus all the money he showered on my mother to persuade her to marry him and have children, I would not be here. Thanks, Daddy.

  18. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    Poor you…..so bitter…lol

  19. David Avatar
    David

    Due to circumstances beyond the control of the BU household there will be no updates today.

  20. lawson Avatar
    lawson

    So Chad is what your saying is if it wasn’t for a bunch of seamen you would never have been born

  21. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    Lawson……lol, he only just made it into the world by seamen, no gestational period, no in utero, no labor pains, no nursing or nurturing, the seamen just grew, poor thing….lol

  22. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    His brain may also be underdeveloped due to no female involvement. ..lol

  23. chad99999 Avatar
    chad99999

    Yeah, we know how vicious and skanky women get when they don’t get their way. Stick it.

  24. focusbarbados Avatar
    focusbarbados

    I agree with Caswell that these women are simply regurgitating. I also agree with David that it’s nice to atleast hear a voice in the BARBADIAN CULTURE OF SILENCE.

    I’ve been away for a while. But I’ll research the past year or so of happenings, update my blog and hit the online newspaper comment threads, David’s blog and more to get back to where I used to be, CHALLENGING destructive Bajan cultural norms, stupidity and complacency all done solo and out in public view (online).

    Just as the scars of abuse never go away, neither will I.

    Peace.

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