Under the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, the religious police - known as the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice - became a notorious agency of arbitrary abuse, ruthlessly enforcing restrictions on women for exposing parts of their body including their wrists, hands, or ankles and being unaccompanied by a male relative, among other things. Saudi Arabia's religious police, also known by the same name, once caused the death of 15 schoolgirls in a fire in Mecca by preventing them from leaving a blazing building because they were not wearing correct Islamic dress.
Although it would be unthinkable to establish such an extreme law enforcement agency in Guyana, there does seem to be a need for a fresh look at protecting young women against exploitation. The Guyana Police Force, clearly, is blind to certain crimes and is not up to the job.
A few months ago, the Guyana Organisation of Indigenous Peoples (GOIP), at its 13th general assembly, called on the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security's Trafficking in Persons (TIP) unit to protect indigenous girls from exploitation. This came after then Regional Chairman Gordon Bradford told the assembly that girls had been sold into prostitution at Itaballi and had to be rescued by the Bartica police; some of the victims were diagnosed as having sexually-transmitted diseases.
The United States Department of State Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, in its report on Guyana issued in June this year, stated: "Guyana is a country of origin, transit, and destination for young women and children trafficked for the purposes of sexual and labor exploitation. Most reported cases involve internal trafficking of adolescent girls. Much of this trafficking takes place in remote areas of the interior, or involves Amerindian girls from the interior trafficked to coastal areas to engage in prostitution and involuntary domestic servitude."
The Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) in June this year released a new report titled Justice for Rape Victims: Reform of Laws and Procedures in Guyana, as a sequel to its Without Conviction: Sexual Violence Cases in the Guyana Justice Process published in July last year. The GHRA called for a new strategy for the investigation of rape cases and the inculcation of new attitudes in the police and the criminal justice system towards sexual violence.
This year, also, publicity was given to the predatory pornographic movies business that is linked to trafficking in persons. The latest chapter in local hard-core pornography opened with the release online and sale of explicit DVDs of Guyanese girls. This briefly elicited outrage and a slew of letters to the press but, after the expected expressions of indignation by the Administration, the police arrested and charged a few clerks with selling the pornographic videos - Guyanese Girls Gone Wild - and interest in the issue evaporated. Amusingly, also, the police were prompted to arrest and charge five Brazilian dancers for performing 'indecent acts' at the Red Dragon club in Georgetown. This, too, became a non-issue.
Reports and resolutions alone will not be enough. The police, particularly in hinterland and rural areas where problems proliferate, lack adequate training to identify and investigate reports of pornography, prostitution, rape and trafficking. This explains their failure to investigate thoroughly and gather sufficient evidence to secure convictions in these vices.
The Administration needs to rethink its approach to this recondite realm of social policy. More effective arrangements for the prevention of vice seem to be necessary if our girl children are to be protected from exploitation by criminal predators.