Equality Bahamas hosts events for Women’s Day (The Tribune)

Press

Mar. 8, 2022 – The Tribune

Equality Bahamas featured in The Tribune on March 8, 2022.

From The Tribune:

 

“This month, we are building on our activities during the Global 16 Days Campaign, familiarising community members with the tools and practices that are critical to — and should be developed and promoted by the national gender machinery which is the Department of Gender and Family Affairs,” said Alicia Wallace, director of Equality Bahamas. “We raised awareness of international mechanisms and critical documents that

 remain in draft form or have been shelved for years. People are talking about proposals and calling for immediate implementation, but we need to increase understanding of their contents, recognition of their gaps, and participation in consultations to improve them.”

Equality Bahamas issued six demands during the Global 16 Days Campaign. They included the update and implementation of the National Strategic Plan to End Gender-based Violence, full compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), full compliance with Belém do Pará, and criminalisation of marital rape.

 

 

‘GET MOVING’: Women’s organization says enough talk on gender-based violence & marital rape, time for action

Press

Mar. 7, 2022 – Eyewitness News

Equality Bahamas one of 30 organizations that signed a joint open letter addressed to the Prime Minister mentioned in Eyewitness News on March 7, 2022.

From Eyewitness News:

In a joint open letter to the prime minister, chief justice, director of public prosecutions and others last week, over 30 women’s organizations demanded delivery on promises to address gender-based violence.

“This is not a favor that we are asking,” Paul said as she urged the government to make decisions with all of its populous in mind.

“This is our right as 51 percent of the populous.

“To me, that’s the underlying thing that deals with all of our areas of concern.

“It continues to be an afterthought or when someone like yourself recognizes or when women organizations recognize they’ve left us out again, and then we have to advocate, and so, first and foremost, that’s the overarching message that needs to be sent and registered.”

The issue of marital rape continues to be publicly debated, with many lawmakers supporting views to criminalize it.

In 2017, United National Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women Dubravka Simonovic said The Bahamas is out of step with the UN’s Convention on the Elimination of All Former of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) as the country had failed to criminalize all forms of marital rape.

On the Clock with Erin Greene : 16 Days of Activism Wrap-up (Guardian Radio)

Dec. 15, 2021 – Guardian Radio 96.9FM

Equality Bahamas founder and co-director Alicia Wallace featured on Guardian Radio’s On the Clock with Erin Greene on December 15, 2021.

Tune in from 23:27 to hear our wrap-up of this year’s 16 Days of Activism events as well as the topic of femicide.

Listen back to the replay below.

On the Clock with Erin Greene : 16 Days of Activism (Guardian Radio)

Nov. 30, 2021 – Guardian Radio 96.9FM

Equality Bahamas founder and co-director Alicia Wallace and co-director Lauren Glinton featured on Guardian Radio’s On the Clock with Erin Greene on November 30, 2021.

Tune in from 21:03 to hear about our 16 Days of Activism events.

Listen back to the replay below.

Women MPs urged to join call for rights (The Tribune)

Press

Sept. 20, 2021 – The Tribune

Equality Bahamas founder and co-director Alicia Wallace featured in The Tribune on September 20, 2021.

From The Tribune:

In a statement issued yesterday, Equality Bahamas also encouraged all parliamentarians to create a culture of gender sensitivity and publicly acknowledging the diverse and specific experiences of women and girls — including LBTQ+ women, women with disabilities, women experiencing poverty, and women engaged in unpaid care work — and the gender-specific response needed.

All seven of the Progressive Liberal Party’s women candidates — Leslia Brice, Patricia Deveaux, JoBeth Coleby-Davis, Glenys Hanna Martin, Pia Glover-Rolle, Lisa Rahming and Ginger Moxey — were elected to Parliament last week.

“We call on the women in Parliament to recognise women and girls as their shared constituency,” said Alicia Wallace, director of Equality Bahamas.

“A gender-sensitive approach is needed at all levels of governance. This includes engaging constituents, drafting legislation, developing policies, designing and executing programmes and activities and contributing to the national budget.”

The group said the advancement of women and the country does not depend on the seven women but requires all parliamentarians to consider gender dynamics and the specific impact of every action on women and girls and commit to gender equality.

Equality Bahamas said both major political parties in The Bahamas “have contributed to dismal representation” of women, particularly as they each only ratified seven women — 18 percent of their candidates — for the 2021 general election.

Equality Bahamas called on the government to implement a 50 percent quota, requiring gender balance on all political party candidate slates.

 

On the Clock with Erin Greene : International Women’s Day 2021 (Guardian Radio)

March 3, 2021 – Guardian Radio 96.9FM

Equality Bahamas founder and co-director Alicia featured in Guardian Radio’s On the Clock with Erin Greene on March 3, 2021.

Tune in from 6:18 to hear all about how Equality Bahamas was started, Alicia’s weekly column in The Tribune, Women’s Wednesdays and International Women’s Day.

Listen back to the replay below.

‘Don’t blame the victims, blame the men who rape them’ (The Tribune)

Press

Jan. 21, 2021 – The Tribune

Equality Bahamas founder and co-director, Alicia Wallace featured in The Tribune on January 21, 2021.

From The Tribune:

A WOMEN’S rights advocate wants society to stop placing the blame on young vulnerable girls being lured out of their homes and becoming victims of statutory rape and hold the men responsible accountable for their actions.

Alicia Wallace, director of Equality Bahamas, told The Tribune yesterday there needed to be an open dialogue on the issue of the rape culture, one that informs and addresses sexual violence in its entirety.

Her comments came after Police Commissioner Paul Rolle revealed on Monday that the majority of the people reported missing in 2020 were adolescent females “engaging in sexual intercourse”.

However, his remarks raised eyebrows in some quarters considering the fact that, according to the law, minors are incapable of giving their consent to sex with adults.

By legal definition, crimes that involve sexual contact with a person who is underage is called statutory rape. The age of consent for heterosexual relationships is 16 while it is 18 for same-sex relations.

Noting there seems to be a common misconception about statutory rape victims in The Bahamas, Ms Wallace said there needed to be greater focus placed on the men “preying on our young girls”.

She also called on police officers to crack down on these perpetrators who may have a history of targeting underaged females.

She said: “We often see that people blame girls for what happens to them. We see the cases pop up, we see the flyers being circulated asking for help with finding girls, minors, people who are under the age of 18.

“And a lot of the social commentary around it is ‘why bother? She’ll come home over the weekend. She probably by man’ and people behave as though these girls are at the age of consent when they’re not.”

She added: “They cannot legally give consent and we’re ignoring the fact that the people who are engaging them and the people who are luring them out of their homes are adult men and these men, as far as we can tell, aren’t being held accountable.

“(These men) know who has little money and who might be motivated by money and they know who may see their bodies as the only way to survive. These are predators and these are people who practice it and no one is safe from it.

“Why do you think they happen to find people who are 16 or 14? Do you think that they were not building these relationships years ago and were waiting? This is sexual grooming.”

Equality Bahamas urges govt. to implement sex education courses (Eyewitness News)

Press
Nov. 4, 2020  – Eyewitness News

Equality Bahamas founder and co-director Alicia Wallace featured in Eyewitness News on November 4, 2020.

From Eyewitness News:

NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Following a recent study by the University of The Bahamas regarding the sexual knowledge of Bahamian college students, Equality Bahamas is once again urging the government to implement sex education based courses throughout schools in the country.

Researchers concluded that individuals respondents “may not have a full understanding of their own agency, and certainly suggest an imperfect knowledge of their rights in situations of sexual pressure.”

Equality Bahamas Director Alicia Wallace told Eyewitness News that while the study is shocking, the results are not new.

“The study was really focused on consent which is a critical issue which we need to address holistically,” Wallace said.

“One of the major problems that we have is a lot of people don’t even realize it when they are violated or when they experience a form of sexual violence because we don’t have a clear understanding of what consent is.”

Wallace noted that the matter has never been addressed directly, despite the continuous push for comprehensive sexual education in both public and private schools.

“We need to be having conversations about the use of contraceptives, about consent, about how you negotiate for condom use,” she added.

She added that the concept of consent should be taught at a younger age about what is appropriate and not appropriate.

 

Police ‘ill equipped’ for domestic abuse (The Tribune)

Press

Oct. 7, 2020 – The Tribune

Equality Bahamas founder and co-director Alicia Wallace featured in The Tribune on October 7, 2020.

From The Tribune:

 

A LOCAL activist yesterday criticised the Royal Bahamas Police Force for its “ill-equipped policing system” to effectively respond to the needs of domestic violence victims, saying more measures and community partnerships are needed to better protect vulnerable victims.

“Policing cannot be effective without building relationships with other government bodies, NGOs and members of the society,” said Equality Bahamas director, Alicia Wallace.

She was responding to remarks made by Police Commissioner Paul Rolle, who told reporters on Monday that police need facilities to house domestic violence victims trying to escape toxic environments.

[…]

Calling the matter “unacceptable”, Ms Wallace said Mr Rolle’s remarks show the RBPF’s disconnect from other agencies and society.

“The fact that the RBPF does not have access to safe houses underlines the point Equality Bahamas consistently makes about ill-equipped police and a policing system that fails to meet our needs,” she told The Tribune yesterday.

“It is unacceptable for police to say they have no safe houses when we know Social Services has responsibility for assisting in housing. It becomes clearer, day after day, that government ministries, departments and agencies are operating in isolation and fail to understand the broader system they operate in.

“They should know the resources and mandates of the other bodies and be able to make necessary connections.”

‘Educate to eradicate domestic violence’ (The Tribune)

Press

Oct. 1, 2020 – The Tribune

Equality Bahamas founder and co-director Alicia Wallace featured in The Tribune on October 1, 2020.

From The Tribune:

LOCAL activists are again calling on the government to implement the necessary tools to effectively address the needs of domestic violence victims.

They say more educational awareness is needed about the issue and also called for the creation of a special domestic unit in the police force.

Their calls come amid public outrage over the double homicide of a mother and daughter that occurred earlier this week, which police suspect is a result of a domestic dispute.

Women’s rights advocate Alicia Wallace (pictured) explained that Monday’s incident is just one of many that shows that there is a culture of violence in the country, which often targets women and children.

Deeming the issue “a public health crisis”, the Equality Bahamas director said the country now needs to address the broader issue of violence which is multifaceted and learn how to communicate effectively in nonviolent ways.

“We’ve been calling for more attention to gender-based violence and we have also been calling attention to corporal punishment,” she said. “We can excuse a woman being ‘disciplined’ by her husband or her boyfriend. We can excuse very extreme discipline of children by their parents or caretakers, but we will not excuse the murder of children.

“All of a sudden it’s an issue now that children are being affected, but we need to understand that violence, generally speaking, is a public health crisis because that’s what it is.

“We can no longer isolate these issues. What we’re dealing with is an inability to successfully communicate particularly in conflict. We need to learn across the board how to communicate in crisis and how to express displeasure without resorting to violence.”

Ms Wallace also said evidence has shown that domestic violence has increased in the country since the COVID-19 restrictions were first introduced.

Having known beforehand how the strict measures would impact the most vulnerable populations, Ms Wallace said activists have been sounding the alarm and calling for the government to introduce “feminist policy guidelines specifically for COVID-19.”

“We called for a specific domestic violence unit within the police department to ensure that there are people that are actually trained to deal with these calls because it’s no secret that people have made domestic violence calls or shown up to make a statement and have been dismissed,” she told The Tribune yesterday.

“There are times when police officers can be quite flippant. We need a specific unit with people who are sensitized to the issues and I mean are trained to properly respond to people.

“They need to be properly trained in not only responding and finding out what they need, but also making referrals. People need to be referred to the hospital, or the clinic or Social Services in getting assistance with temporary housing which we don’t have enough of.”