President of the Guyana Bar Association (GBA), Kashir Khan said the legal system must provide swift, just and fair punishment for perpetrators of violence against women while ensuring that a path of rehabilitation exists for both victims and offenders.

Khan made the statement in observance of International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, remarking that there is a universal right of everyone to live free from threats or intimidation.

“We must be constantly and consistently vigilant in the struggle against the brutality with which we are all too often silent witnesses to. Whether great or small, international or domestic, we should all be committed to the eradication of all incidences of cruelty, carnage and the havoc it brings to the lives of women,” Khan said.

According to the GBA President, Guyanese must seek to rectify any situation where acts of violence are perpetrated against women.

“This violence must be eradicated in every form and in all its manifestations in thoughts, actions and equally as important, our inaction.” He noted that in allowing ongoing acts of violence, those who fail to do something are just as, if not more, complicit in the continuing aggression.

“We must strive to eliminate the environment which allows aggressors to develop, believing that it is acceptable to violate the rights of women,” Khan said.

He added that there is a universal task to educate victims of these crimes that they are not to be blamed and avenues of assistance do exist.

“The GBA acknowledges the imperative of purging the individual and collective societies of the scourge of violence against each other and more particularly our womenfolk.