By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

AN activist said the current administration continues to demonstrate its disinterest in addressing the issue of marital rape by “putting it off” and explicitly stating that it is prioritising other issues.

Alicia Wallace, director of Equality Bahamas, told The Tribune yesterday that people in situations of vulnerability as well as pressing social and legal issues are being “ignored.”

Her remarks came after Justice J Denise Lewis-Johnson handed down a ruling on August 29 involving a divorce case in which a woman claimed her husband would force intercourse and made her feel like a “rape victim” throughout their marriage.

While ruling that the husband was cruel for forcing his wife to have sex against her will on numerous occasions, it was found that “there is no rape in marriage” under Bahamian law.

The judge noted the woman claimed she “has felt like a rape victim during the ordeal of sexual intercourse with the respondent.”

While she granted the couple’s divorce and accepted the petitioner’s evidence, the judge said the issue raised by the parties of non-consensual and forced intercourse along with the word “rape” required the court to consider the term in context of Bahamian marriage laws.

It was highlighted in the judgement the offence of rape is set out in section three of the Sexual Offences Act which states rape is the act of any person not under 14 years of age having sexual intercourse with another person who is not his spouse, without the consent of that other person; without consent which has been extorted by threats or fear of bodily harm; with consent obtained by personating the spouse of that other person; with consent obtained by false and fraudulent representation as to the nature and quality of the act.

In response to the judgement, Ms Wallace spoke about the issue regarding the courts tackling the problem.

“The current administration continues to demonstrate its disinterest in addressing the issue of marital rape, putting it off and explicitly stating that it is prioritising other issues. People in situations of vulnerability and pressing social and legal issues are being ignored,” she asserted.

“In this case, we see that a woman was being repeatedly raped by her husband, and the court refuses to acknowledge it as rape, blaming it on the law and abdicating responsibility to use the law to protect human rights. The ruling refers to sex with a wife as a man’s ‘right,’ but does not reference the wife’s actual right to bodily autonomy or safety.

“On August 20, at one of the sessions in our CEDAW (Convention) Speaker Series, committee member Rhoda Reddock focused on Article 5 of the Convention and Bahamian attorney and CEDAW committee member Marion Bethel joined her to talk about the ability of judges to use CEDAW, whether or not it has been domesticated by the state, and this has been done in other countries.

“It is clear that Christian values, morals, and whatever passes for love are not sufficient to ensure a safe, healthy environment or healthy relationships. We have come to depend on the law to distinguish between right and wrong, and on judges to interpret the law. Obviously, both need significant improvements, and it cannot wait.”

Equality Bahamas continues to run the #Strike5ive campaign which advocates for the criminalisation of marital rape in the “most explicit way”.

“The Sexual Offences Act needs to be amended to remove ‘who is not his spouse’ from the definition of rape in Section 3, Section 15 must be repealed, we need a statutory definition of consent along with a clause of non-immunity on the basis of marriage, and there must be no temporal limitation,” Ms Wallace said.

However, Dr Sandra Dean-Patterson, the director of the Bahamas Crisis Centre, saw the judgment as a step in the right direction for progress.

“Well, I would certainly applaud and commend the judge in that case for putting the reality which is that rape in a marriage is not illegal, but that that behaviour is wrong and that behaviour needs to be addressed, and there needs to be consequences for it,” she argued.

“And so we definitely would commend her and support her with that. And you know, over the years, the Crisis Centre has talked about the violence that too many women live with in marriages and intimate relationships and there should be recognition, the fact that that’s unacceptable. You know, marriage is not a license to beat or to rape. You know you don’t have the right to do that and you shouldn’t use marriage as cover or shelter for behaviour that’s wrong.”