- NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 20/Jul 07:02

Femicide failures

FEMICIDES have long been frequent in this country. But instead of things getting better, they are getting worse: 26 women were killed as of mid-July, according to the International Women’s Resource Network. That’s almost as much as the total number of females murdered for the entirety of 2021 alone. The gruesome end to the search for 22-year-old Sangre Chiquito resident Candice Honore on July 17 sent shivers through the nation. Too often, in a country overwhelmed by and inured to crime, has attention to the plight of women, after occasional expressions of public outrage, waned. But the horror of body parts being found in a suitcase in a pond off Oropouche Road, Valencia, has shocked the senses and shined a spotlight on a disturbing reality. Femicide has not gone away. And the ability of the state to tackle it has, lamentably, stood still. Seemingly hapless is the state when it comes to gender-inflected crime. Commenting on a week of harrowing criminal activity which saw women kidnapped and found dead, Attorney General John Jeremie on July 18 described these incidents as “truly horrific.” But top cop Allister Guevarro’s state of emergency will, despite its significant expansion of police authority, be of limited use in dealing with these kinds of incidents. As will the Kamla Persad-Bissessar administration’s plans to introduce laws for stand-your-ground standards and to criminalise home invasions. For females, the threat can come from the home itself where partners or relatives lurk. There, pepper spray won’t work. A global meeting on femicide held in Vienna from July 15-17 noted disturbing trends. According to officials at that UN event, attention to violence against women has waned since the days of the covid19 pandemic. This, even though at least 140 women and girls are killed every day internationally. While countries abroad have recognised the need to tackle gender stereotypes and to criminalise femicide as a unique offence, local laws treat all homicides equally, with only sentencing providing room for consideration of aggravating factors. Police attitudes to females caught in cycles of abuse reflect wider social prejudices. Unfortunately, even minister of Homeland Security Roger Alexander, when he this week issued a warning to women about social media dating, inadvertently reflected, through inept language, a tendency to victim blame. That tendency holds us back from progress. The women and girls of this country are entitled to the same rights enshrined for all in our constitution – to life, to liberty, to security of the person. Yet, ours is a society that has brought about the murders of Andrea Bharatt, Ashanti Riley, Shannon Banfield, Hermina Doughty, Keyanna Cumberbatch, Eden Nekeisha Teesdale and, now, Candice Honore. All were human. All were loved. All deserved far better. The post Femicide failures appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.