SJB call for drive to end violence against women
A campaign group tonight appealed for a drive to end violence against women.
Social Justice Bermuda made the call on the eve of International Women’s Day, which will be marked around the world tomorrow.
The group said: “Gender-based violence is one of the worst forms of social injustice, institutionally and culturally entrenched in societies.
“Inequalities in power structures, rape culture – the ways in which society normalises sexual violence, which includes a continuum of threatened violence that ranges from sexual remarks to sexual touching to rape itself – and various forms of discrimination, contribute to violence against women.”
SJB highlighted recent cases of violence against women and girls, including a mother of two who was the victim of a machete attack in July last year.
A woman was sexually assaulted at knifepoint on her way to work in September the same year.
Garrina Cann was shot and killed at her Pembroke home later the same month and the case remains unsolved.
The group said its criminal justice reform team had also highlighted cases such as a man who got probation for a to slit his wife’s throat in October last year.
It added a man got a conditional discharge in court after he assaulted a 12-year-old girl last December.
Another man got a suspended sentence in January for an assault on his 14-year-old daughter and in February a man who filmed himself beating his estranged wife last year also got a suspended sentence.
SJB appealed to people who wanted to take action to fill out an anonymous online survey on violence against women, with survivors surveyed here and friends and family here.
SJB also highlighted a Letter to the Editor last year by Tawana Tannock, a lawyer, on limitations to domestic violence legislation, with suggestions to address the gaps.
The group also suggested that people made a donation of $250 to the Centre Against Abuse – the cost of a protection order for a client.
The Centre’s HSBC account is 010 284636 001.
The group provided a link to an educational video on rape culture in Bermuda, which also features ways to combat it.
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