“Creating Partnerships to confront Sexual Violence in the Caribbean”

 

The Bahamas Crisis Centre is pleased to host the 2nd Regional Conference of Crisis Centres in the Caribbean to be held here in Nassau, Bahamas from September 26th – 30th 2007.

This year the Bahamas Crisis Centre will celebrate 25 steadfast years of service to the Bahamian community. We regard the hosting of this Conference an appropriate celebration of our stalwart achievement.

The theme of the Conference is “Creating Partnerships to Confront Sexual Violence in the Caribbean” and is aimed to strengthen the fight against sexual violence by:

1. Bringing together Crisis Centres from more than 15 Caribbean Countries in order to establish a Regional Alliance of Crisis Centres;

2. Sharing experiences and expertise on the issue of sexual violence within each territory and throughout the Region as a whole;

3. Exploring new ways to build alliances with government, private sector and civil society, including the youth, church and police;

4. Considering the enactment of new and existing legislation within the Region;

5. Launching an “Annual Day Against Sexual Violence” to be commemorated annually Crisis Centres and stakeholders throughout the Caribbean in an effort to bring wider attention to the scourge of sexual violence.

Sexual Violence continues to plague our Caribbean Islands, and is generally ignored by our populations at large, and we must therefore increase the advocacy by “Creating Partnerships to Confront Sexual Violence in the Caribbean”. While several battles have been won to various degrees in our region, including the criminalization of incest, mandatory reporting of suspected child abuse, comprehensive definition of rape, passage of Rape Shield laws, a great deal more still needs to be done.

One only has to read the police reports to see a picture of increasing sexual violence which is targeting children and young girls to underscore the need to continue to address this problem. Through collaboration, we seek to enhance what we already have and initiate new and exciting campaigns for greater success. Partnerships with existing agencies for change will be strengthened and new partnerships with male organizations, youth organizations, tertiary institutions and other stakeholders will be formed. “Evil exists when good people do nothing”…so together we can stop Sexual Violence.

Conference Goal:

To create partnerships to strengthen the ongoing work of the Caribbean Countries Crisis Centres and other social agencies in the campaign for greater awareness and advocacy in confronting sexual violence

Objectives:

• To facilitate a meeting of stakeholders in regional Crisis Centres
• To collaborate, using regional data, in order to strengthen our advocacy in confronting sexual violence.
• To identify the best practices in the fight against sexual violence
• To foster a network by creating partnerships for greater awareness and advocacy to end sexual violence
• To declare the last Friday of September as the regional day to End Sexual Violence

The Bahamas Crisis Centre intends to sponsor one (1) participant from each Caribbean island, the Family Island delegates and also the guest presenters. The islands that have been invited are: Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, British Virgin Island, Cayman, Cuba, Curacao, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago, Puerto Rico, Turks & Caicos and U.S. Virgin Islands.