NASSAU, BAHAMAS — The proverbial clock is ticking toward the Human Rights Council meeting in May 2023, and the country’s deadline to report on advancements in society based on the United Nations universal periodic review (UPR), remains a concern for human rights groups as one of the items is marital rape.
Despite Prime Minister Philip Davis’ declaration that”rape is rape” the country has not yet criminalized spousal rape.
Social services officials have stated plans to meet with Baptist church leaders to consult, but Equality Bahamas Activist, Alicia Wallace noted that has been done before.
“This is yet another stalling tactic used by the government and we’ve seen it before, we’ve seen so many bills get stalled because there’s this never-ending so-called consultation,” Wallace said.
In September a Sexual Offences Amendment Bill was presented at a public symposium to discuss potential changes to the Sexual Offences Act in which members from various sectors including; the Christian Council, phycologists, rape victims, activists, law enforcement representatives, citizens and others gathered, many voicing their opinions on the act.
Two representatives from the Bahamas Christian Council (BCC), Rev. T.G. Morris and BCC President, Delton Fernander were among those giving presentations to the audience, with a stance against the changing of the legislation.
“There is absolutely no need for additional consultation with the Christian church. The entire symposium that was held this year was designed around religious leaders.
“It was specifically for them and those of us from NGOs that attended that session, it was very clear to us that we were added on at the last minute. Most of us got the invitation maybe two days before whereas leaders of Christian churches were invited well in advance,” Wallace said.
The human rights activist added that the minister stating that they are going to meet with the Baptist church again is insulting and that the back and forth is unnecessary and the rhetoric serves no purpose when given the fact that human rights exist and those rights are what each person is born with.
“The issue is that we are not able to realize those rights. They are not actualized, we cannot access them because of inequality and discrimination in the law because of failures in systems and resources.”
As she advocates for changes to be made to the law, Wallace said that one of the biggest threats to women’s rights is gender inequality in legislation and gender-based violence.
“It’s where we see the greatest erosion of our human rights where we are in situations where we are experiencing violence within our homes, within relationships; in public as well as in private spaces and is not being interrupted,” she continued,
“And the government who are supposed to be responsible for protecting us and responsible for preventing violence and for intervening is finding every reason that they can to prevent, stepping up and making a clear statement that women’s rights and human rights, this is our obligation and we are going to make these changes to the sexual offences act to ensure that no one has an excuse, no one has any immunity when they rape the person that they are married to.”
The recommendations made on the UPR for the Bahamas in 2018 will be evaluated next year, as it hits the five-year deadline, and on that UPR, is criminalizing marital rape. Wallace said therefore that the government should prioritize the issue.
Additionally, Wallace pointed to the lack of commitment to human rights obligations, as one of the major reasons for the delays in legislation that affects some of the most vulnerable people in the community.
Coupled with a lack of public education on the matters, Wallace explains this adds fuel to the fire in long delays for progress.
“Year after year, various people, whether it’s the attorney general, not just this one, but previous attorney generals as well, or ministers of social services telling us, yes, we’re going to deal with the issue of marital rape,” she said.
“They say that in February and then come August, they tell you that they’re prioritizing financial bills so that they behave as though they’re running single issue government and they can only deal with one or two things at a time; when this is the reason that we have the number of employees that we have and the reason that we have different ministries and departments so that people can share the work and we can get it done,” Wallace said.
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