By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

FORMER Prime Minister Perry Christie said all offensive acts that cause pain to women must be looked at carefully, adding steps should be taken to protect victims.

Mr Christie gave his opinion after speaking at a National Training Agency event yesterday when he was asked if marital rape should be criminalised.

“You want to ask those questions of the government of today. The point of this is all offensive acts that cause pain - and pain of all kinds to women of our country - must be looked at carefully, okay, and we must always take steps that are pointed in the direction of protecting those people who are victims.

“Whatever level the steps are, be that legislation, must be aimed at being effective and it must be aimed at being able to serve the interest that it’s intended to serve,” he told reporters.

“So, whatever the debate is about, you begin with looking at the victims and understanding what it is you have to do to protect victims in terms of abuse of any kind. That ought to drive public policy — the complying urgency to extend levels of protection to people who are victims.”

National Security Minister Wayne Munroe recently spoke at a Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) men’s branch meeting about the issue. He said the offence needs to be called something other than rape if successful convictions are being sought.

“I can tell you, in my judgment, if we decide that we want consent to … in sex given in marriage to be able to be withdrawn at any time and for any reason, so that you can commit an offence of having intercourse with your spouse without their consent, if we want to succeed in getting convictions for it, we better call it something other than rape. That’s just the reality of it,” Mr Munroe said.

“When we engage in this debate, it should be in this fashion: What behaviour are we wanting to outlaw? After we define what behaviour we want to outlaw, we can write it down and you can come up with any name to call it. But if you call it rape, in the modern-day Bahamas, you will have a very low conviction rate for that.

“Then, you would only be successful if your objective was to call it that as opposed to (getting) people punished for it.”

The issue of marital rape has been a topic of debate for years spanning several administrations.

The last Ingraham administration aimed to criminalise all forms of marital rape in 2009 but the plan faced immense pushback and prompted uproar from religious leaders and many Bahamians. The Marital Rape Bill was ultimately shelved.