CADV calls for urgent action to address domestic violence

The Coali­tion Against Do­mes­tic Vi­o­lence (CADV) is call­ing for ur­gent im­prove­ments to the coun­try’s re­sponse to do­mes­tic vi­o­lence, warn­ing that gaps in the jus­tice sys­tem and vic­tim sup­port ser­vices con­tin­ue to put women and chil­dren at risk.

In a state­ment is­sued on Fri­day, the coali­tion said re­cent cas­es of ex­treme vi­o­lence against women by their in­ti­mate part­ners had high­light­ed the need for stronger le­gal pro­tec­tions, im­proved so­cial ser­vices and a na­tion­al pre­ven­tion frame­work.

CADV said vic­tims were of­ten at great­est risk of es­ca­lat­ing vi­o­lence when they sought help from the au­thor­i­ties or ap­plied for pro­tec­tion or­ders, par­tic­u­lar­ly in the ab­sence of a struc­tured, manda­to­ry state re­sponse.

It called for re­ports of do­mes­tic vi­o­lence to trig­ger im­me­di­ate risk as­sess­ments, swift ar­rests and charges where war­rant­ed, safe­ty plan­ning for vic­tims and their fam­i­lies, and ac­cess to se­cure ac­com­mo­da­tion when nec­es­sary.

The coali­tion said many women re­mained trapped in abu­sive re­la­tion­ships be­cause of fi­nan­cial de­pen­dence, re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for chil­dren, fear, shame and so­cial stig­ma.

It al­so warned against vic­tim-blam­ing, stress­ing that do­mes­tic vi­o­lence was an ex­er­cise of pow­er and con­trol and could not be jus­ti­fied by al­co­hol, anger man­age­ment prob­lems or re­la­tion­ship dis­agree­ments.

While de­scrib­ing the Do­mes­tic Vi­o­lence Act as strong leg­is­la­tion, CADV said im­ple­men­ta­tion gaps con­tin­ued to un­der­mine its ef­fec­tive­ness.

It not­ed that too many cas­es took months to be heard, de­spite the law’s re­quire­ment for speedy pro­ceed­ings, while a na­tion­al pro­to­col for risk as­sess­ments had yet to be com­plet­ed.

The coali­tion al­so called for more ad­e­quate­ly fund­ed shel­ters, spe­cialised po­lice train­ing and struc­tured in­ter­ven­tion pro­grammes for per­pe­tra­tors aimed at pro­mot­ing ac­count­abil­i­ty and be­hav­iour­al change.

CADV said women and chil­dren should be able to re­main safe­ly in their homes with ad­e­quate pro­tec­tion, but where that was not pos­si­ble, the coun­try need­ed suf­fi­cient shel­ters to pro­vide safe­ty, le­gal as­sis­tance and long-term sup­port.

It al­so called for a na­tion­al pre­ven­tion frame­work be­gin­ning in child­hood, with schools teach­ing em­pa­thy, equal­i­ty and non-vi­o­lent con­flict res­o­lu­tion.

The coali­tion urged men to take a more ac­tive role in chal­leng­ing harm­ful at­ti­tudes and speak­ing out against vi­o­lence against women.

It cit­ed re­cent pub­lic com­ments by for­mer West In­dies crick­eter Dwayne Bra­vo as an ex­am­ple of men us­ing their in­flu­ence to con­demn do­mes­tic vi­o­lence.

CADV said end­ing do­mes­tic vi­o­lence re­quired col­lec­tive ac­tion from com­mu­ni­ties, schools, work­places, faith-based or­gan­i­sa­tions and state agen­cies.

It urged the pub­lic to re­ject vic­tim-blam­ing, sup­port sur­vivors with­out judge­ment and chal­lenge con­trol­ling and abu­sive be­hav­iour, warn­ing that si­lence and stig­ma al­lowed vi­o­lence to per­sist.