by Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ and Director, CREDI
On Saturday, April 22, I chaired a forum on Domestic Violence (DV), held at Holy Trinity RC Pastoral Centre and organised by Hazel Thompson-Ahye, attorney-at-law, mediator and child rights advocate. Fr Dexter Brereton CSSp, parish priest, opened the session with prayer.
Speakers at the forum were: Thompson-Ahye; Anna Maria Mora, Educator and Counselling Psychologist; Mme Justice Halcyon Yorke-Young, temporary judge of the Family Court of T&T; and Corporal Curtis Price, Community Police Officer.
DV has many dimensions. It is a pervasive community problem that impacts all of us. It diminishes and dehumanises each of us and takes place here and across the world – in every parish, community, economic class, ethnic group, age group, occupation, culture and religion.
As Rita Thaemert says, research has shown that it is a major contributing factor to a number of social ills such as child abuse and neglect, female alcoholism, drug abuse, mental illness, attempted suicide, and homelessness.
In 2004, Dianne Mahabir Wyatt, Chair of the Coalition against DV, said that “T&T is regarded as the domestic violence capital in the region.” Although women are the main targets of DV, men can and do also suffer from DV.
Years ago, the then Head of the UN, Kofi Annan, stated that: “Violence against women is perhaps the most shameful human rights violation… As long as it continues we cannot claim to be making real progress towards equality, development and peace.”
Over and over, Pope Francis has been speaking out against this sin. This is in keeping with the Church’s position on this issue. On Saturday, February 7, 2015, he denounced domestic violence against women stating: “Although it is a symbol of life, the female body is unfortunately not rarely attacked and disfigured, even by those who should be its protector and life companion.” He said that DV and female mutilations are degradations that have to be combated.
In 2016, in his Apostolic Exhortation, Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love), he highlighted victims of DV as one of the groups on the margins. And in his World Day of Peace message for 2017 entitled Nonviolence, a style of politics for peace, he pleaded for an end to DV and to the abuse of women and children.
See CCSJ’s website for the Statement of the AEC Justice and Peace Commission seminar on DV. I had represented our Archdiocese at that event in Guyana in May 2013. Read also the US Bishops’ Pastoral Response to DV against women, entitled: When I call for help.
Mora rightly reminded us that “culture nurtures conscience” and asked us to reflect on the cultural prohibitions and positive prescriptions of our society as they relate to DV. Inter alia, Thompson-Ahye highlighted regional, and international law on DV, some of the myths and misconceptions related to DV, issues relating to the Power and Control Wheel/the Equality Wheel, the effects of DV on the victim, perpetrator and children, and issues relating to Restorative Justice and Family Violence.
Justice Yorke-Young raised awareness of T&T’s Domestic Violence Act, Ch 45:56, Act 27 of 1999, as amended by 8 of 2006. Section 3 of the Act defines DV which includes “physical, sexual, emotional or psychological or financial abuse committed by a person against a spouse, child, any other person who is a member of the household or dependant.” She also shared information about what the Act states about Protection Orders. We know, however, that legislation alone is not enough to defeat DV.
Cpl Price highlighted the role of the police in relation to DV and shared a useful pamphlet on DV with key contact numbers for victim assistance and services e.g. 999, 911, 800-TIPS (8877), or the DV hotline: 800-SAVE (7283).
If we are to promote integral human development in Trinidad and Tobago; if we are to demonstrate that we value the sanctity of life and the dignity of each person made in the image and likeness of God, we must accept that domestic violence can never be justified. We are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers and cannot remain silent when many live under the threat of such violence in their homes, workplaces and communities.
