Call for Urgent Action on Violence against Women
25 November 2024
Government Minister Hon. Kirk Humphrey (seventh from left) joined students, activists and members of the Diplomatic Corps for the Red Shoe painting activity
A call has been issued for urgent action to be taken to address the scourge of violence against women.
It came during the recent ‘Red Shoe Painting Day’, held in preparation for the launch of the Red Shoe Exhibition on November 25, a day observed globally as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
The exhibition was inspired by the Red Shoe Project, a collaborative art installation designed by Mexican artist Elina Chauvet. It involves laying out pairs of red shoes in various locations to represent women around the world who have lost their lives to gender-based violence.
Addressing the event, head of the Institute for Gender and Development Studies (IGDS) Nita Barrow Unit, Dr Tonya Haynes, pointed to a report from the Commissioner of Police in March 2024, which indicated a 21 percent increase in reports of domestic violence in the previous year, while assault and wounding accounted for 55 percent of the reports.
“Some activists asserted that the 572 reports up to that period of the year were an underestimation, sharing that calls to crisis hotlines had increased by as much as 30 percent,” Haynes noted.
Violence against women and girls is one of the most prevalent human rights violations, which affects one in three women worldwide.
Haynes told the audience of students and members of the Diplomatic Corps that there is still a lot of work to be done.
“There are a lot of girls (who) have been missing this year; we have also lost women to intimate partner violence this year and we’re just not putting the resources that we need to put into prevention, and we’re not putting enough resources into care and support for survivors. By and large survivors of gender-based violence, survivors of child sexual abuse have no access to justice.”
Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, Ambassador Malgorzata Wasilewska stressed the need for a collective effort to address the problem.
“I really don’t think we’re winning this battle. I don’t think the statistics are getting better globally, but particularly for this region. I don’t know what else we need to do collectively. Not just as diplomats, not as activists, not as gender institutes but as every human being.
“We cannot walk past it, we cannot keep silent., we have a responsibility to comment and not ignore what goes on around (us) because it’s simply unacceptable,” she said.
Since its inception in 2009, the Red Shoe Project has been replicated in Norway, Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Spain, Ecuador, United States, Canada, Brazil and Africa.
Minister of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs Hon. Kirk Humphrey committed to creating a permanent home for the red shoe project in his ministry, noting that the work needs to continue beyond the observance of the 16 days of activism.
“There are many cases where (women) feel that they’ve been exposed to violence and they don’t feel that they’ve been treated fairly by the justice system, and they feel that level of disconnect from the time the report is made, from the time they visit the police stations, in many cases going to lawyers, going through the judicial system, it is as if there is a serious disadvantage when it comes to women and these are things that we have to address,” Humphrey stated.
The 16 days of activism against gender-based violence is an annual international campaign that runs from November 25 to December 10, which is observed as International Human Rights Day.
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