Imani Tafari-Ama | Human rights, equality and justice: Elusive in the context of violence

Every year, November 25 is recognised as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (IDEVAW). This day initiates a period of 16 days of activism against gender-based violence. These activities culminate in the celebration of International Human Rights Day on December 10.

Jamaica is a signatory to numerous instruments produced by the United Nations (UN), which is the global custodian for the realization of equal rights and justice for all.

Despite the input of multiple generations of well-meaning rights and justice advocates, efforts to maintain high standards of global and local morality and fairness have fallen short of acceptable levels.

Whether the matters concern equitable access to voice and veto power at the UN Security Council or local guarantees of safety, subjects of power systems still find themselves at a disadvantage.

In the quagmire of citizen insecurity that continues to haunt Jamaicans from all walks of life, three stories this past week were particularly profound. The murder of Barbara Gayle, the conviction of Matthew Hyde, and the death in childbirth of 14-year-old Anna-Shay Campbell highlighted the spectre of insecurity that all too many women face.

The highlighted incidents underscore the entrenched pattern of violence against women, which snakes its dangerous influence through personal and institutional encounters. The elusive prize of equality is under threat simply because perpetrators of violence are hell-bent on denying their victims their inalienable human rights.

Barbara Gayle’s murder was tops on the list of shattering events. Barbara is best known for the column, Legal Wranglings, covering court cases, which she wrote in The Gleaner for over 40 years. Gayle was passionate about justice. To this end, she relentlessly pursued the stories that spoke to the search for this elusive reckoning with the law.

It was therefore devastating for family, friends, the media fraternity and the public at large when news broke that the 77-year-old investigative journalist had been savagely killed at her Caymanas Estate home on December 17.

Footage of Gayle’s having a short conversation with a man, exploded like a bomb on Jamaica’s citizen security scene. Caymanas Estate is a gated community with a strong security system. Yet, the alleged perpetrator of this cowardly crime was able to severely breach the safety boundaries.

CLAMOURED FOR BLOOD

Gayle’s SUV was recovered just off the Dyke Road. Shortly afterwards, news of the arrest of the murder suspect caused some relief. However, social media commentators also clamoured for the blood of the perpetrator.

Although the country has unfortunately become used to the daily diet of many murders, the report that Gayle’s body had multiple stab wounds suggests that the killer’s motive was personal and his intention was to keep the noise of his vicious deed deathly quiet.

The 15-year sentence handed down to Matthew Hyde, 21-year-old former student of The University of the West Indies (UWI) Mona campus, was a fair response for another gruesome violation of a woman’s inalienable human rights.

This perpetrator’s victim was his ex-girlfriend and fellow student, who was held hostage for three days and tortured with a hot clothes iron. Hyde branded his victim on her buttocks, her breasts, her nose, lips, forehead, arms, cheeks, and both sides of her back. He also kicked her, pulled her by the hair, held her by the throat and beat her with a belt.

During the trial, the young woman recalled that she thought she was going to die while being abused in the perpetrator’s presence. She was also trapped and paralysed by terror when he left her locked up in his room while he attended classes.

Producing a psychosocial profile of the perpetrator would be useful. It would help to figure out the components that contributed to the construction of Hyde’s warped notions of what it meant to “control” his woman. Perhaps it is time we stopped using such expressions to define intimate partner relationships.

SEEKING JUSTICE

In the third case study, Christine Campbell, a mother-in-distress, is seeking justice for the death of her only child, 14-year-old Anna-Shay Campbell. Young Campbell succumbed to the extraordinary stress of childbirth at the Spanish Town Hospital. Her mom is claiming that her daughter was the victim of gross neglect.

This incident happened while the junior doctors were on strike. Sity to 70 per cent of junior doctors employed islandwide were unavailable for service to the public when the distraught woman took her daughter to deliver her baby.

Campbell claimed that during the extended labour period, it became apparent that her child’s body was too small to accommodate the birthing procedure. She therefore signed the documents to authorise a Caesarean section. The unavailability of doctors made this option prohibitive.

The frantic mother further pleaded with the available authorities to provide a referral to allow her daughter to seek alternative health services elsewhere. This assistance was not forthcoming. Tragically, the daughter and her unborn child died.

Jamaica suffers from a high maternal mortality rate. Annually, 130 deaths are recorded for every 100,000 live births. The UN suggests that 70 deaths per 100,000 is a more sustainable ratio. This is one of the sustainable development goals that should be achieved by 2030.

In one of her online rants, Campbell recalled that what compounded the crisis was the impression of prejudice conveyed by the personnel on duty at the hospital. She alleges that part of the neglect she and her daughter experienced was due to the nurses’ prejudiced response to the extreme youth of her daughter.

“She made a mistake,” Christine conceded. Anna Shay’s 15-year-old baby father could not be prosecuted for rape because he was a minor at the time of conception.

The country is currently waiting for the results of the investigation that Minister of Health Christopher Tufton has ordered into the matter.

Common threads of human rights violations tie all three incidents together. T his pattern suggests that the goals of equal rights and justice cannot be achieved in a cultural context that normalises gender-based violence.

Imani Tafari-Ama, PhD, is a Pan-African advocate and gender and development specialist. Send feedback to i.tafariama@gmail.com and columns@gleanerjm.com