KINGSTON, Jamaica – Member of Parliament for East Rural St Andrew, Juliet Holness, has sought to address criticisms of a statement she made yesterday regarding violence in Jamaica.

“For absolute clarity, violence against women, in any form, is reprehensible and absolutely unacceptable,” Holness said today in response to the backlash on social media. “Even as we continue to take steps to eliminate gender-based violence through targeted and specific interventions, these interventions will not be very effective if we continue to neglect the fact that too many of us, from childhood, only learn violence as a means of correction, justice and conflict resolution. This, in turn, perpetuates a culture of violence against women, men, children, and in fact anyone with whom we have disagreements in our daily lives.”

Holness, who is also the wife of the prime minister, argued that violence, in all forms, is a national problem, and must be tackled from the root.

“As a woman, a wife, a mother, a sister, and a representative of the people, I however, have a duty to be clinical about the root causes of the challenges facing the nation,” Holness said. “When I have a constituent fatally shooting his son, or see women pouring acid on each other, and children being reflexively hostile to each other, as well as caregivers and educators being accused of violence against children, I am forced to highlight the need for treatment of the root cause and not only topical symptoms.”

Holness, who also serves as the deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, came under criticism on social media today, following a tweet she made saying, “We need to stop seeing acts of violence in a partisan or a gender specific way so we can address the root of the problem which continues to affect every class, race, gender, political or sexual orientation.”

In responding specifically to this statement, she said, “Let us be united in our honesty with each other as a nation and try another way, instead of the divisive blame game. We cannot heal our nation of this plague if we only treat violence symptomatically when there is a flare. We must re-socialise and rethink the way we view discipline and abuse. This is how we can better support families and other institutions to bring about the kind of cultural change that is necessary to eliminate all forms of violence in Jamaica, once and for all.”

The Jamaica Labour Party women’s caucus has since broadcast a video condemning violence against women and girls. Minister of Gender, Culture, Entertainment and Sport, Olivia Grange, who is featured in the video, said, “We are determined to root out the scourge from our country, and support every legal action to eliminate these horrible acts.”

Candiece Knight