On Friday last the government and opposition joined forces to pass landmark legislation in the Parliament, the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill, 2019.
In it, this country saw for the first time the creation of a National Sex Offender Registry.
Since its passage stakeholders and the wider public have had time to peruse the contents of the bill and make assessments.
The Police Service welcomed the bill
One key organization is the Police Service which welcomed the legislation as an important tool in fighting heinous crimes such as the sexual assault of children.
“The Trinidad and Tobago Police Service welcomes any law including the Sexual Offences law. This will be a great tool for the Child Protection Unit that will help them along in the fight against crimes as it relates to children. This will aid them tremendously,” said Wayne Mystar, Public Information Officer of the TTPS.
In laying the bill before its passage Attorney General Faris Al Rawi pointed out that between 2015 -2017 over 80 per cent of child sexual abuse reports involved girls in comparison to 15 per cent for boys.
He noted that there were reports of sexual abuse against babies from as young as 0-11 months, and at least 21 per cent of reports involved children under the age of 14.
A key feature though in the bill is the creation of a National Sex Offender Registry.
“The Judiciary has confirmed the following: number of persons convicted in the period 2000–2019, number of persons convicted for sexual offences and who really ought to be on this register. The number of persons convicted: Magistracy, 1,461; High Court, 232—for a total of 1,693. The number of persons ordered to register in the sex-offenders registry at the Magistracy, zero; at the High Court, zero; for a total of zero. We say when you unearth the very ugly of Trinidad and Tobago, the reality of what our country looks like, the assessment of the law of the Sexual Offences Act, Part III, 34A onward, when you disaggregate that information, it shows that the law just did not work and nobody was paying attention,” AG Al Rawi told the Parliament.
Attorney has concerns
But there is a concern that was expressed by an Attorney at Law, Larry Williams regarding the registry.
“In theory the register is a great idea the problem I have is in the practical application. Justice Volney had been asking for this for countless years. The information on the website is potentially damning and in the wrong hands who knows what people may do having names and address of offenders to use as targets. Again, once it works the way it’s intended, bravo, but when the information is magically “leaked”, as it inevitably will, with no accountability and the damage done that’s where the problem lies.”
Single Fathers Association weighed in
Adding his two cents on the issue is a man who has been championing the cause for single fathers across the country, Rondall Feeles, President of the Single Fathers Association.
“From what I have seen added I can’t say that I see anything running a mock.”
But he too had a concern, and this lies with fake reports that leads to a person being incarcerated or made to register on the sex offenders list
“I was thinking that they would also look in instances of false allegations into criminalizing, once you have evidence that a false allegation of a sexual offense nature was made against somebody wrongfully and maliciously to either extort them or maliciously defame them in any particular way that they would have looked at making some criminal element or legislating something.”
NGO said conviction rate still too low
Chairman of the Caribbean Committee against Sex Crimes, Attorney Jonathan Bhagan described the bill as historic and said it balances the important human rights concerns by giving the judges of the High Court discretion over who goes on the registry. He said this will prevent constitutional challenge against the law from succeeding.
But, “the only thing I would have liked added to the law is a provision to share the registry with Interpol and the US Angel Watch Center. The US presently sends Caribbean states information on travelling sex offenders via email,” he said.
He added that “while the registry is important, we need to deal with Trinidad’s 2% conviction rate and the low reporting rate. More funding for NGOs such as Rape Crisis and for the Counter-Trafficking Unit is needed in this regard.”
The Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill, 2019 was passed with 28 voting for, none against and no abstentions.