By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

SOCIAL Services and Urban Development Minister Obie Wilchcombe said the government is hoping that consultations on the drafted Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill, 2022, will be completed before early next year.

He spoke to reporters on the sidelines of his ministry’s one-day symposium on the proposed sexual offences legislation that seeks to criminalise marital rape among other things.

The event was attended by government officials, religious leaders and women’s right activists, some of whom shared their perspectives on the proposed legislation and also gave recommendations.

At the end of yesterday’s event, Mr Wilchcombe said he thought the discussions went well, adding that he hopes to have another symposium soon.

Asked how long the consultative period will last, the minister said the government is hoping to complete it ahead of the attorney general’s meeting with the United Nations representatives in early 2023.

“We’re trying to move as quickly as we possibly can because we do have some commitments. The attorney general has to speak at the United Nations next year February or March and we don’t want to be in a situation where we’re continuing having to answer questions about our human rights while we’re critical of (other) countries and their human rights so let us be leaders.”

When asked if the final legislation could be tabled in Parliament by then, Mr Wilchcombe was non-committal.

“It’s safe to say that we’re going to have another session and afterward we’ll be able to have a definitive date,” he replied.

Yesterday, attorney Marion Bethel, a committee member on United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), reminded officials of the country’s international human rights commitments, saying the nation had an obligation to live up to them.

“The Bahamas government, The Bahamas as a state really has a lot to be accountable for to Bahamian women, to Bahamian citizens in regard to upholding its obligations - and for us to be able to go abroad and sit with our heads held high and exercise some kind of moral authority in leadership, we really need to be compliant with what we have undertaken,” she said.

As it relates to the draft bill, she said she is pleased with the revised definition of “consent” and the removal of the phrase “who is not his spouse” from the definition of rape and gave further recommendations.

For his part, Free National Movement leader Michael Pintard said he thought advancing discussions on the draft legislation was a step in the right direction.

“Now that we have it before us, our colleagues will meet. I’ve gotten feedback already from the time draft amendments were circulated and so, colleagues have already begun to formulate their opinion and we will sit down as a caucus next week and have a detailed discussion with respect to it,” he said.

Marital rape is currently not a crime in The Bahamas and while some former administrations have pledged to address the matter through legislative means, it has never happened.

Meanwhile, there have been renewed calls for the Davis administration to address this gap in legislation, especially 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.

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.

“Imagine having to kiss, to lay down and have sex with someone that just burst your head open with your head,” symposium attendee Tina Foster-Gay said yesterday, while recounting her experience of abuse while married.

“Let’s make this vision clear. It is not fair. It is not fair that I could’ve not stood behind the laws of my country as someone who serves in this country.

“It is not fair that women cannot go to the police because they are told ‘that’s your spouse, you’re married.’ So, I should suffer and I should die. God is not pleased. He did not put me on this earth to suffer -to be hit and abused and raped.”

She also asked, “Where is the church when I am being raped by my spouse?”

“Where is the church when I am being hit and being abused? Telling me not to leave, but they are going to bury me and they are going to say ‘ashes to ashes and dust to dust’.”

Ms Foster-Gay, who has since left the abusive relationship, urged Bahamians in similar situations to “get out” and also called on lawmakers to stand behind survivors of abuse.