By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

SOCIAL Services and Urban Development Minister Obie Wilchcombe said the government is currently reviewing draft legislation that addresses the issue of marital rape and is hoping to receive feedback “from all sides” concerning the proposed legislation.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Mr Wilchcombe said he was impressed with the draft legislation and added that he was looking forward to discussions with religious leaders on the issue this Thursday.

The talks will no doubt be lively as Christian Council officials have said the body remains generally divided when it comes to marital rape.

Though the church is supportive of efforts to tighten the law to provide protection against rape for spouses in the period between legal separation and divorce, according to Bahamas Christian Council President Delton Fernander.

“It’s going to be a very good discussion,” Mr Wilchcombe said. “You will have the stakeholders (and) you will have the church. We will be discussing the matter because we must. We’ve become signatories of CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women) and other organisations and it’s imperative that we have the discussion.

“Now what would happen subsequent will be another story because we will have to determine where we move, whether or not we move with the legislation, but I am very impressed with the drafting of the legislation that we’re looking at now and we’re hoping to get some feedback from all sides on the draft legislation that would allow us to make strides in the right direction, but, very clearly, it’s an issue and we have to deal with the issue one way or the other.”

Asked if the draft legislation criminalised marital rape, the minister said it criminalised rape.

“It criminalises rape and then it defines what rape is and, of course, it can then occur in any circumstance, including a marriage,” he said.

There have been reignited calls for the criminalisation of marital rape in view of a recent Supreme Court ruling on a divorce case involving a woman who said she felt like a “rape victim” in her marriage.

The woman claimed her husband would force intercourse and made her feel like a “rape victim” throughout their marriage.

While the judge ultimately granted the couple’s divorce and ruled that the husband was cruel for forcing his wife to have sex against her will, it was found that “there is no rape in marriage” under Bahamian law.

Weighing in on the issue of marital rape on Friday, former Prime Minister and former Free National Movement leader Hubert Ingraham recalled his efforts to address the matter through legislative means when his administration was in office.

However, he said those efforts were not successful because of lack of support from both his FNM and PLP colleagues. In 2009, the Ingraham administration tabled a bill that would have made spousal rape a crime, however, it was later shelved due to immense pushback from some quarters.

“I was the one who ratified the convention at United Nations to make that an international commitment for marital rape to be illegal in The Bahamas,” Mr Ingraham told reporters on Friday.

“But you can only do what you have the support for so I assume Mr Davis will make a judgement as to whether or not he has the support of his members to pass it.”

He added, “Many persons who you see parade around here as ordinary decent human beings do not believe that marital rape ought to be a criminal offence and in private, they have their views so as members of the press, you can grill them, crisp them, put them on the record for their personal private positions and see how many duck you and how many give you an honest answer.”

Meanwhile, former Prime Minister Perry Christie said he will support whatever decision his successor makes.

Section three of the Sexual Offences Act states that 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.