It is your right to be free from abuse

The 16 days of activism have come to an end but we are fully aware of the need to keep the spotlight on gender-based violence. Guyana remains a country without a key piece of legislation for addressing gender-based violence (GBV) –The Amended Sexual Offenses Act in limbo.  Caught between the retraction/amendment of the former Sexual Offenses Act and the yet to be enacted Amended Sexual Offenses Act, survivors of sexual offenses remain without legal recourse until the Parliament is reconvened. 

We urge you to contribute in your own special ways to ending GBV. We thank you for reading and sharing within your circle, information on gender-based violence and a commitment to change. Knowledge is power.  Commitment keeps the lights on —on the needs of survivors, on failures in the enactment and enforcement of laws aimed to protect, on the lack of resources to assist the women and men facing GBV. Lack of knowledge and an abundance of fear contributes to the continued victimization of women and men on the basis of sex and gender.  The Domestic Violence Act affords us all “protection in cases involving domestic violence by granting of a protection order, to provide the police with the powers of arrest where a domestic violence offence occurs and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto”.

Types of Orders

The court may make several orders on an application. These orders include:

1. A Protection Order - Protection orders are commonly referred to as restraining orders and have the effect of forbidding a person to:

·         be on premises where a person lives or works;

·         be on premises where a person goes for education;

·         be on premises that a person often goes to;

·         be in a particular place specified in the order;

·         speak to or send unwelcomed messages to a person named in the order

2. A Tenancy Order - If the victim and abuser are tenants of the house they live in, the court gives the victim the right to be the only tenant. The abuser will have no legal right to live in the house.

3. An Occupation Order- When the court makes a Protection Order, it can also make an Occupation Order. This order entitles the victim to continue to live in the home, even if the home belongs to the abuser. This means that the abuser cannot throw the victim out, but the abuser will have no legal right to occupy the house while the order is in force! However, this does not mean that the ownership of the house is transferred to the victim. It means that the victim can live in the house even though it belongs to the abuser.

Intervene, educate, agitate —starting with the people closest to you

We hope our blogs may have inspired you to intervene, educate and agitate on behalf of someone being victimized by GBV. We all have a right to be free from abuse. Violence is not love and abuse is never justified. If the abuser is not stopped, the violence usually gets worst over time. Let your family, neighbours, co-workers know.  Let’s continue to be activists for peace in the home. We are the change we hope for.  Our lives begin to end the day we decide to become silent about the things that matter, the words of Martin Luther King Jr.

Get help

If you have experienced violence you are not alone.  APC-Guyana, with support from USAID, funds 10 NGOs that can offer assistance:

Red Thread Women: Crossroads Women's Centre

(592) 227-7010

Help & Shelter

Homestretch Avenue, Georgetown, Guyana

Tel: 225 4731

Agape Network Incorporated
Lot 2 Turkeyen, Upper Dennis Street Sophia
Tel: 219-2300

Artistes In Direct Support
156 Alexander Street
Tel: 225-5112

FACT
78 CORRIVERTON, BERBICE, GUYANA
Tel: 335-3990

Hope For All
Lot 6 Belfield Public Road, Essequibo Coast
Tel:774-4598

Youth Challenge Guyana
G Enachu Street Section K, Campbelville
Tel: 223-7884

United Brick Layers
25 Charles place New Amsterdam, Berbice
Tel: 333-4524

Linden Care Foundation
Kara Kara, Linden, Guyana
Tel: 444-6693

Lifeline Counselling Services
332 East Street, Georgetown Guyana
Tel: 615-6308

Hope Foundation
YOUTH CHOICE CENTRE MONGRIPPA HILL, BARTICA
Tel: 455-3144

Comforting Hearts
6-16 Coburg Street, New Amsterdam, Berbice
Tel: 333-4722

 For more information:

 The law and you pamphlet published by The Guyana Association of Women Lawyers – 2003 

http://www.legalaid.org.gy/files/gawl/law.pdf

Laws of Guyana 

http://www.law.yale.edu/rcw/rcw/jurisdictions/ams/guyana/Guy_Dom_Viol_Act.pdf

"The Domestic Violence Act : How can it help you or a friend" pamphlet published by the UNDP, Guyana. c 1997