The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

Thank you for allowing me to make a comment on the continuing discussion about the alleged need for the criminalisation of marital rape by the Parliament of The Bahamas.

I may be mistaken but I do believe that in 1991 when the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Act (Ch.99) (”the Act”) which was passed by the Parliament of The Bahamas, they were doing so in fulfilment of their commitment under the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) which had come into force on September 3, 1981. The Act was assented to by the Governor-General on July 29, 1991 and came into force on August 2nd, 1991.

I say that because I used to be in the Department of Legal Affairs and at the time when the Act was enacted by Parliament, I was serving as a Justice of the Supreme Court hearing criminal and civil matters including matrimonial cases and I seem to have a recollection of the discussion in the House of Assembly as to why it was necessary to change the law from what it had been to what was then enacted.

In particular, I recall that a new provision that did not exist in any previous law in this country was section 15. That section reads as follows:

1. (1) Any person who has sexual intercourse with his spouse without the consent of the spouse —

(a) Where there is in existence in relation to them —

(i) a decree nisi of divorce;

(ii) a decree of judicial separation;

(iii) a separation agreement;

(iv) an order of a court for the person not to molest or co-habit with his spouse, or any other order made under Part ii; or

(b) where the person has notice that a petition for judicial separation, divorce or nullity of marriage has been presented to a court,is guilty of the offence of sexual assault by a spouse and liable to imprisonment for a term of fifteen years.

(2) No prosecution of a person under the age of twenty-one years shall be commenced for an offence under this section without the consent of the Attorney-General”.

Madam Editor, do you think that may in fact be a criminalisation of marital rape seeing that under our law a marriage in fact continues in law until a death or a decree absolute of divorce is granted by the Supreme Court?

“For what it is worth” as the late P Anthony White used to say.

JOAN A SAWYER

The Right Honourable Dame Joan A. Sawyer, DBE

Nassau,

June 19, 2023.