A MEMBER of one of the island’s advocacy groups for women’s and children’s rights in St. Lucia is raising her voice over the news of a 12 year old girl who is pregnant with the child of a 32 year old family friend.
Catherine Sealys of Raise Your Voice St. Lucia has taken issue with the general response to the incident and is calling out the men who partake in such crimes, as well as the government and the ministries charged with handling such matters.
The first point raised by the women and children’s rights advocate was the common question asked usually by members of the general public. Sealys said as soon as news of this nature is reported, the societal discussions begin to flow: however, it hardly ever goes further than just talk.
She said perhaps her biggest gripe is the fact that the question: “Where were the parents?” is always asked.
To that question, Sealys said: “I want to ask, which mother watches their child 24 hours a day, whether you have no money or whether you have a lot of money? Nobody looks at their child, monitors their child, have sight of their child throughout the day. The question is, why do people rape people’s children? Why do men continue to rape women and why do men continue to rape children?”
The “Raise Your Voice” Secretary questioned the failures of the society and the systems designated to bringing justice to victims and perpetrators of such crimes.
She said there were many organisations that could be put to good use towards educating young men about how they should properly treat women.
Sealys said: “So we want to understand, if the Ministry of Social Justice and the Ministry of Home Affairs, with all their other organisations like the Boys Training Centre, the Transit Home, the Department of Human Services, Ministry of Community Development and the Welfare Department, when are they going to do some serious public education so men understand that they cannot just go about raping women and children?”
She continued by pointing out some of the numerous flaws in the system that are seemingly ignored.
“We have the Forensic Laboratory, they’re not opening it at all. New issues have come to light but it needs to be open and the government needs to put that on their priority list…. at the very top of the priority list.
The highly flawed judiciary system was another issue mentioned by Sealys. Those flaws, she said, are the reasons why perpetrators feel confident enough to commit such crimes.
She added: “We still have a problem where we don’t have a court house and I understand that the old courthouse has been condemned as the air quality test didn’t come out too positive, so we have a number of issues.
And then the biggest issue of all is the fact that a woman gets raped, a child gets raped and the case is languishing at the DPP’s office for 10-15 years, then when the woman is 28-30 years, she says ‘I do not want to get back into this, I have my family, I don’t want to put myself through this again’. So men know, when they rape women, one way or another in St. Lucia , they’re getting away with it because the justice system is not working.”
Sealys said unless priorities are set straight, the system will never work and will therefore remain a continuous failure.
