MOVEMENT ON MARITAL RAPE LAW: PM instructs AG to act on social services’ recommendations

Davis says matter could be addressed this term

NASSAU, BAHAMAS — The issue of marital rape in The Bahamas could be dealt with during the current Davis administration term, according to Prime Minister Philip Brave Davis.

He said the government will move to enact into law the recommendations stemming from the Ministry of Social Services on gender inequalities and marital rape.

He was responding to a question from Eyewitness News on whether the matter would be given further consideration since at least 24 lawmakers have expressed the need to change the law to criminalize marital rape.

“Thursday and Friday of last week, the minister of social services and urban development held a conference to examine what I call the inequalities in the law, discriminatory laws, to determine the way forward as to what adjustments we have to make to our laws on the issue that are inequitable between the laws and any other discriminatory laws,” Davis said outside of the Balmoral Club.

“The issue of rape came up as well. Whether you call it marital or otherwise, rape is rape.

“I don’t want to get into the description of rape.

“I’ve given the attorney general the mandate to follow the recommendations that will flow from that conference that was held last week by the Ministry of Social Services and we’ll see what the recommendations are from there, and we’ll move to enact what laws [are] recommended by them to the attorney general that is deemed appropriate by the Cabinet.”

Asked yesterday if the issue could be dealt with during this term, Davis said: “It could come up in this case.”

The prime minister has said marital rape is wrong.

In November, Davis said an effort to change the law should be part of a “larger national conversation and consensus”, but said the issue was not on the government’s agenda this term.

At least 24 parliamentarians, including six senators — the vast majority of whom are governing members — have expressed support for changes to the existing laws.

The Bahamas has been labeled as out of step with the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women because of its failure to criminalize all forms of marital rape.

Successive governments have expressed preparedness to amend The Bahamas’ Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Act (1991) to criminalize marital rape, but the issue remains in the discussion phase to date.

In 2018, then Attorney General Carl Bethel advised the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, Switzerland, that the government intended to criminalize marital rape.

However, there was no movement on the matter under the previous administration.

The Bahamas Christian Council has not put forward a formal position on marital rape.

However, the council proposed in 2018 that spouses found guilty of forcing their partners to have sex be liable to a prison term of life.