PRESS RELEASE

THE RECOGNITION OF ENDING ALL VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN.

To day, November, 25th has been declared by United Nations a day for the recognition of ending all violence against women. At this time, violence must be considered from a gender perspective because some women do inflict violence on men.

St. Vincent and the Grenadines has an existing piece of Legislation call the Domestic Violence (Summary Proceedings) Act 1995 and the Domestic Violence Matrimonial Progceedings Act of 1984. We recommend to women to make more use of these legislation by going to the Family Court and the High Court respectively to get redress from any violence which is perpetrated against them.

At a different level, St. Vincent and the Grenadines has ratified the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and the Eradication of Violence Against Women, commonly knows as the Convention of Belem do Para. Having ratified that treaty, Vincentian women could now use that Convention or Treaty to get redress for any violence perpetrated against them.

The SVG-Human Rights Association will be mounting a public awareness programme in the year 2004 to instruct women of various means by which they can use this Belem do Para Convention and the local Domestic Violence Acts to get redress for violence inflicted upon them. Violence in any form is a negation of Human Rights. Women Rights are Human Rights.