Local group seeks further security for women as CCJ rules in protection order case

By Emmanuel Joseph

A local advocacy group has asked the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) to rule on some recommendations that would expand protection for current and past victims of domestic violence.

The recommendations submitted on Wednesday to the CCJ by Anya Lorde, the lawyer for Operation Safe Space (OSS), came as the Trinidad-based court delivered a ruling in favour of a woman who was denied a protection order by the local courts.

They include expanding the category of persons who can get protection orders and ending the practice of victims being questioned in court by perpetrators.

OSS and the International Centre for Advocates Against Discrimination (ICAAD) Inc., which Lorde also represented, had appeared amici curiae (as friends of the court) in a case filed by attorney-at-law Lalu Hanuman on behalf of Roxann Rachel Goddard who went to the CCJ after the local courts refused to grant her a protection order against her former partner and father of her child, Abdul Aziz Akojee.

The Barbadian woman challenged the majority decision by the Court of Appeal to uphold a 2020 ruling by the District ‘A’ Magistrate’s Court that she did not fall into the category of persons entitled to apply under the Domestic Violence (Protection Orders) Act and the court had no jurisdiction to grant her the protection order. 

She sought clarification from the CCJ, Barbados’ highest court, about the meaning of “former spouse” under the Act, and was successful in her appeal.

“The court is unanimously of the view that in this case, the magistrate did have jurisdiction to hear the complaint,” CCJ President Justice Adrian Saunders said on Thursday in delivering the decision.

The court agreed with the view of Justice Rajendra Narine, who gave a minority decision in the matter at the Barbados Court of Appeal, that Goddard fell within the persons entitled to apply for the order.

“The appeal is therefore allowed and we will give reasons in due course,” said the CCJ president.

Hanuman said the decision would affect not only his client but others in similar situations.

“It doesn’t only apply to her, it applies across the board. Anybody who has been in a cohabitational relationship, regardless of the passage of time, can still apply for a protection order. Magistrates here in Barbados had said that once they are separated they are no longer entitled to the order. That’s, in effect, what they were saying. But the CCJ is saying regardless of the passage of time, they could still get the protection order,” he said.

Goddard and Akojee were in a relationship for about three years and lived together for approximately 21 months, during which time they had a son. After breaking up in 2019, they had an on-and-off relationship until May 2020.

However, Goddard applied for a protection order following an incident at her mother’s business place.

When the matter reached the Court of Appeal here, the panel said it could not be the case that any person who once had a living relationship with an alleged perpetrator of domestic violence could apply for a protection order under the Act without having regard for the time that elapsed since that past relationship.

Commenting on the broader issue of the protection of women, Co-Director of OSS Dr Marsha Hinds-Myrie told Barbados TODAY that the recommendations made by Lorde to the CCJ went beyond protection orders and addressed legislative and social reform.

The attorney submitted to the five-member CCJ panel that protection should be extended to include former visiting relationships.

“Visiting relationships should not be limited to actual or perceived romantic intimate or sexual relationships of any duration. Practice rules and directions should be enacted which offer a more expansive definition of coercive control and guidelines on how it can be identified by judicial officers,” she suggested, further recommending that practice rules and directions be subject to annual or bi-annual review in line with local and international research findings.

She added that guidance could be taken, for example, from the Domestic Abuse Act of England and Wales 2021 and the UK’s Policy Guidelines which have extended provisions regarding coercive control to include post-separation abuse.

One of the other recommendations made by Lorde was that the practice of perpetrators of domestic violence cross-examining their victims should be discontinued.

“The magistrate should be given the discretion to grant a protection order for the maximum duration of 12 months, excluding any duration of an emergency or interim [protection order],” the attorney suggested.

“Barbados’ poor data collection practice is an omission which contributes to the State’s inability to respond effectively to [domestic violence] and directly contributes to the derogation of victims’ fundamental human rights. This should be rectified with urgency,” Lorde further contended.

In the CCJ case, the other Justices of Appeal were Winston Anderson, Maureen Rajnauth-Lee, Denys Barrow and Peter Jamadar.

Acting Solicitor General Anika N. Jackson in association with Jared Richards and Fianne Best appeared for the Attorney General as second respondent, while Leah Thompson represented UN Women Multi Country Office – Caribbean. 

Akojee took no part in the appeal at any point.

emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb