Domestic and Gender-Based Violence Response Network Guidelines

The purpose of the Advocacy Program is to encourage people to express their feelings both via letters to the editors of the various newspapers and by telephone calls to radio talk shows in response to reports of:

• Child abuse by parents, teachers or any other adult.

• Bullying in schools.

• Spousal violence.

• Incest.

• Sexual abuse of any kind to any person.

• Locking people up in their homes and not allowing them access to communication.

• Abuse of the elderly, and the disabled.

• Institutional violence based on gender, e.g. police failing to take reports of spousal abuse, or laughing at abuse cases where a woman beats a man, or a school trying to cover up reports of teacher abusing a student, or a hospital refusing to acknowledge that a child or a woman has undergone sexual abuse.

• Where it is a case of students attacking a teacher, if the writer is a student, they should try to express why they think this might have happened and to offer a course of action that students, themselves can take to change the situation.

• Homelessness which ends up in court…what about the homeless who have not yet ended up there? What is the society doing to prevent homelessness which in turn leads to violence and crime?

• What are we doing to prevent corporal punishment in schools, which countless studies have shown does actual neurological damage to the developing brains of children?

• To teach people how to be good parents, and how to teach others how to discipline themselves without physical or verbal or emotional violence? To prevent children from growing up neglected and abused so that they turn to crime.

Guidelines for the letters:

• Read the article detailing the abuse carefully.

• If possible, check details with the reporter over the phone. If that is not possible, try and read another account in another paper.

• Respond only to the facts as reported.

• Express dismay or anger or disappointment as appropriate. It is important that feelings be expressed.

• Do not criticize people by name, or name the abuser. This can lead to legal action.

• If the article refers to a “close relative’ this usually refers to the father, stepfather or uncle of the victim. “Assisting the police with their enquiries” means they are being questioned.

• If the victim’s name is given, you can express sympathy, or compassion in reference to that person using their name. Giving them support publicly often helps them not take on the burden of shame and guilt that society often lays on the victims.

• Ask for action from the relative authority, for example a change in the law, a policy change by the offending institution or Ministry (of Health, of Education etc. whichever is relevant) medical, legal, counselling, assistance for the victim, support for NGO’s such as the Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Rape Crisis Centre, ChildLine, Families in Action etc. and requests that the Children’s Authority and a Children’s Ombudsman be established. Choose whichever is appropriate under the circumstances.

• Sign your name.

• If you are a teenager, include your age, this is particularly impressive to the editors, and since many of the victims are under the age of 18, it is a sign of solidarity and support for them. It also gets the message across to the public that teenagers care about social issues and are capable of expressing feelings of condemnation where they perceive abuse is taking place.

• If the writer is male, expressing their own feelings against this kind of violence is particularly important in order to get the message across that not all males are violent or condone violence based on gender, or the strong against the weak.

• If you are unsure of the appropriateness of the letter the first few times, e-mail a copy to dmwyatt@tstt.net.tt for vetting.