Tomorrow (Friday, March 8) is International Women’s Day. As usual, there are overarching themes, hashtags and slogans. That’s all fine. But, to me the most important message of all is that women’s rights are human rights – as Hillary Clinton said in a speech in Beijing when she was First Lady, back in 1995.
Simple. International Women’s Day is a Human Rights Day.
Most recently, I was distressed by the murders of two sixteen-year-old girls, one in rural Jamaica and one in inner city Kingston, within one week of each other. Tara Alecia Dennis was murdered on her grandmother’s verandah in Little London, Westmoreland, allegedly by an ex-boyfriend. I wrote about her on my Substack, here. Bianca Thompson was shot several times in the head as she slept in her home in Arnett Gardens, Kingston.
Since then, other Jamaican women have died violently, allegedly at the hands of men. A 60-year-old farmer was killed and her son is in custody. Meanwhile, outside the courthouse, a man was found guilty of having his wife killed. The victim’s sister’s comments as she choked back tears were heartbreaking: “We have been through it. We are a closely knit family, and for one of us to be taken out in this manner, it has been very hard on us. She was the baby of the family…” She said the family will never be the same. If the couple were having problems, she added, why not leave her alone – why have her killed? “She was loved,” her sister cried.
Moreover, the same man is to stand trial for the murder of his first wife, in 2009.
I know, Jamaicans are going to say: “Jamaican men are an endangered species, too!” Yes, they are often victims – and often perpetrators, too, especially when it comes to gang activities; but also when it comes to domestic violence, they are most often the perpetrators. Sometimes, it seems, women fight back… But femicide is a real issue, across the Caribbean, and has been for years.
Our women and girls must be protected. I think Stand Up for Jamaica’s message for tomorrow echoes my feelings.
March 8, 2024
Stand Up for Jamaica International Women’s Day Message: Salute the women who are fighting abuses, discrimination and injustices
As we celebrate International Women’s Day today, let us laud not only the women who are making great strides and pushing the agenda of women’s rights and inclusivity but also salute our women, who are fighting to survive abuses, discrimination and injustices.
And even as we celebrate let us also highlight that we still have so much to achieve in terms of rights and dignity.
We are still grappling with a high number of cases of women being killed, beaten, raped, and violated even as they struggle to gain the same recognition and pay as men.
The ongoing incidents in the number of women being killed by their partners highlight that we still have much work to do in Jamaica. These cases of intimate partner violence occurred in a context where a woman should feel loved and protected.
For many of our women who are in abusive situations, the toxic poison of male supremacy and the culture of male dominance has been so internalized that they continue to enable the abuse by saying, “he beats me up because he loves me”.
We need to teach our men that violence and aggression should not be a part of their relationship which should be fostered daily with mutual respect, understanding and dialogue.
We also need more campaigns to educate our women that violence has nothing to do with love, and that their fears are the effect of insufficient engagement of our society in working on men and women together to introduce the concept of equal rights and dignity.
Women need greater support in their claims, they need shelters to go to when their family homes become a living hell, and they need to know that no one will use their difficulties to take custody of their children.
They also need to know and trust a system where while violence is punished, instruments are offered to build their independence and self-awareness.
In the meantime, we welcome the amendments to the Domestic Violence Act, which among other things, allow the court to impose a fine of up to $1 million for a breach of a protection order, up from a maximum of $10,000; and a sentence of up to one year in prison.
This is indeed an excellent move by the Government in the protection of victims of abuse and hope that the new penalties will serve as a deterrent and help to reduce domestic abuse.
And we truly share the sentiment that a new day has come for protecting victims and increasing the punishment for perpetrators of domestic abuse.
There is absolutely no excuse for abuse and we must end abuse.
Let us celebrate International Women’s Day with a purpose, by doing all that is required to protect our women, and provide them with equal opportunities and pay.
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