Seeberan-Suite calls for Domestic Violence Unit

MEN who are stressed out and mentally unstable play a key factor in domestic violence. This according to attorney-at-law Lynette Seeberan-Suite, who said that Government ought to start creating task forces or units that could step into homes which suffer physical and mental abuse at the hands of stressed-out men. Factors which play a significant part in leading men to be violent to women, Seeberan-Suite said, were drug and alcohol abuse, depression and stress. “You can pick up the newspaper on a daily basis,” Seeberan-Suite said, “and read stories of women who are killed by their significant others especially at vulnerable times when they are attempting to leave a relationship.”

She said it was time for the design of some form of intervention, whether it be a task force or a unit staffed by trained personnel to spot a deteriorating domestic  situation leading to violence. Seeberan-Suite, of ASPIRE (Advocates for Safe Parenthood Improving Reproductive Equity) delivered the feautre address yesterday to a women’s seminar held by the All Trinidad Sugar and General Workers Trade Union (ATS&GWTU) and CAFRA (Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action) at Rienzi Complex, Couva.

The seminar was in commemoration of Internal Day to Eliminate Violence Against Women which is to be celebrated on Friday November 25. Although recognising the current legistation on domestic violence as “good and sophisticated,” Seeberan-Suite said that such legislation was not sufficient to tackle the problem of domestic violence in homes and protect women. She said various networks ought to be set up around the country to assist victims, especially chronic victims, who have nowhere else to turn. Seeberan-Suite said Government needs to design such a programme with intervention strategies. “This could save the lives of many women,” she said.