JAMAICA’S refusal to sign on to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) is blocking women who are being abused from getting compensation from the State in cases where police are negligent.

According to attorney-at-law and women’s and children’s rights advocate Margarette Macaulay, who has the distinction of being the first Jamaican woman to sit on the seven-member Court, Jamaica should become a party to the Court.

“For years various governments have promised us that they would ratify the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence Against Women (Convention of Belem do Para). But because Jamaica has not ratified the Inter-American Court, a woman who suffers violence, which is a breach of the Convention, cannot take the case to the Court where, if Jamaica had ratified, she could take the case to the Court,” Macaulay told Observer reporters and editors at yesterday’s weekly Monday Exchange held at the newspaper’s Beechwood Avenue head office in Kingston.

“Normally the first person women interface with when they are abused is the police, and for some reason, even though the police have had umpteen copious training sessions you still have police officers who will not react appropriately and in fact sometimes will turn them away,” she said.

“Now, that is in breach of the convention, and if brought before the Court you could complain and say the State has failed to grant me access to justice because the police officer did not treat with me properly and sent me away and I may be battered again or even killed,” added Macaulay who writes a weekly column on women’s and children’s rights in the Observer’s All Woman magazine on Mondays.

As it now stands, in the case of Jamaica, individuals or organisations acting on behalf of individuals can only take matters to the Commission instead of the Court, which has more farreaching powers.

“Women and girls in Jamaica don’t have that security, whereas other countries that are members, for example in Barbados, their women can go to the Court and get compensation” Macaulay noted.

Macaulay, who has been a formidable voice in the human rights, women’s rights and children’s rights lobby for most of her over 32 years in legal practice, has, in recent times, expressed disgust at the explanation given as to why Jamaica was not a party to the court.

“I was told that because of Jamaica’s position on hanging, which was contrary to the principles of the Court, it had not ratified the Treaty; but Jamaica can chose to reserve on that and still be a member of the Court, as in the case of Barbados,” she said in a 2007 Observer interview conducted just after her election to the Court.

According to statistics from the Jamaica Constabulary Force a total 2,501 cases of domestic violence went before the Courts in 2008.

The Victim Support Unit (VSU) of the National Security Ministry in August 2008, in launching its 10th anniversary celebrations revealed that since 2005 a total of 22,739 cases of domestic violence were seen by officers working from the 13 VSU offices in Jamaica. Of this number, 13,979 victims were females, while 8,760 were males. It said there were 9,625 incidents of domestic violence in 2007.

Under the Domestic Violence Act, an abused person can seek the protection of the Courts against actions by their abusers who have threatened physical or mental harm. Such acts include watching the victim’s home or school, persistently calling the victim, or using abusive language or ill-treatment. In such cases, the Court is obligated to assist the abused person by granting them a protection order, or a restraining order as it is more commonly called.

The penalty for violating a restraining order is 10,000 Jamaican dollars or six months’ imprisonment.