The Family department under the aegis of the Ministry of Youth, Sports and the Family, hosted a workshop last week to validate an inventory report on domestic violence agencies, hence to find the most pragmatic approach on a commencement date for the implementation of the Domestic Violence Act 2020, protecting women, men and children.
The half-day workshop held at the National History Museum’s conference room was attended by representatives from the Family department, the Police, Family Tribunal, Health, Attorney General’s Office and the Citizens Engagement Platform Seychelles (Ceps). It fell during the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence (GBV) under the theme, ‘Orange the world: End violence against women now’.
Family department had procured the service of GEM Consultancy in late November 2020 to carry out an inventory of all the agencies that deal with to domestic violence. It was to evaluate their preparedness in serving victims and plaintiffs of domestic violence.
In addressing the participants, the principal secretary in the Family department, Clive Roucou, said the exercise with the organisations is to thoroughly examine their SOPs (standard operating procedures) and to bring to the fore the challenges in their implementation, be it, in terms of capacity building, in manpower or financial capacities.
The consultancy, led by Marie-May Leon, worked closely with the Family department and interacted with relevant partners involved in assisting the plaintiffs and casualties of domestic violence to see how they operate, including proposing changes in structure and align the SOPs with the Domestic Violence Act 2020, discuss installation of new structures and implementation of SOPs and to develop monitoring and evaluation tools and organise training sessions to familiarise agencies with the monitoring and evaluation tools.
Due to Covid-19, the inventory was done online by completing the enclosed questionnaire and through virtual meetings.
The act assented to by former President Danny Faure in June 2020, prohibits acts of violence and abuses by those living in communion, or by other family members or those not related by blood but sharing the same residence.
Apart from prohibiting physical and sexual aggression, the law also takes into account the emotional, verbal, economic or psychological abuses.
It also provides for the protection of victims of domestic violence and for penalties for the perpetrators.
In a survey conducted by Gender Links, National Bureau of Statistic and the Social Affairs department on GBV in 2016, domestic violence is rife and both sexes are affected almost equally.
The survey showed that 58% of women and 43% of men experienced some formed of GBV at least once in their lifetime. Most of the violence occurred in the homes with 54% of women and 35% of men experiencing some sort of violence by the intimate partners.
An equal proportion of women and men (40%) confirmed that they had perpetrated violence against their partners.
Speaking on the inventory, Mrs Leon said that the services to attend to domestic violence are present and there have been concerted efforts to tackle the problem of domestic violence through the provision of services, sensitisation campaigns and public educational programmes but there is a lack of coordination between the affiliated service providers, among other issues like staffing and training.
Among some recommendations stated in her presentation, there is a need to build the capacity of the police and relevant service providers in handling cases of domestic violence, the judiciary system should create a conducive environment that encourage victims of violence to report abuse (both women and men) and this by raising awareness about the criminal nature of various acts of abuse as is highlighted in the Act, a need for a juvenile institution in place under the umbrella of the Ministry of Family Affairs to cater for juvenile perpetrators, an urgent need for a Mental Health Clinic with available service under the umbrella of the Ministry of Health to cater for respondents in family violence cases, a need for one-stop domestic violence shelter to provide a safe home for women, men and children in transition.
As the way forward, she mentioned the establishment of monitoring and evaluation strategies for all agencies and to develop and implement a short, medium and long-term domestic violence training plan targeting all sectors.
Jane Larue from research and policy planning in the Family department said that following an agreement on the SOPs and monitoring mechanisms to be put in place, among others, by the service providers to protect people against domestic violence, the ministry will be looking for a commencement date to implement the Domestic Violence Act 2020.
Source: Seychelles Nation
