WOMEN’S rights advocates, lawmakers and legal experts gathered virtually on April 25 for a landmark forum on gender-based violence, hosted by the Caribbean Women in Leadership, CIWiL Jamaica.

The event examined femicide legislation, gaps in the Domestic Violence Act, and the structural barriers preventing Jamaican women from accessing justice, and it drew rare bipartisan agreement that the status quo must change.

CIWiL is a non-partisan, independent, regional organisation dedicated to advancing women’s transformational leadership and increasing the representation of women in leadership and decision-making in political, private sector and civic life. Headquartered in Trinidad and Tobago, CIWiL has chapters in Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, The Bahamas, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Government outlines recent progress

Senator Sherene Golding Campbell, representing Gender Minister Olivia Grange, highlighted recent legislative gains, including amendments to the Domestic Violence Act and the new Sexual Harassment Protection and Prevention Act. She described Bureau of Gender Affairs services, a dedicated response team, survivor helplines, and islandwide shelters, while stressing that lasting change demands a whole-of-society effort.

“Changing minds and behaviour requires collective effort from Government, NGOs, and community groups,” she said.

Femicide: The case for a standalone offence

Presenter Aundrene Cameron, attorney, noted that Jamaica currently classifies femicide under general homicide statutes, with no legal recognition of gendered motivation. She outlined arguments for a stand-alone offence, heightened awareness, specialised responses, but cautioned that proving gendered intent creates a heavy evidential burden. She questioned whether criminal law alone could address the structural and cultural roots of violence against women.

Laws must prevent, not just punish

It was legal analyst Alliyah Dasilva who delivered the forum’s sharpest indictment. Dissecting the Domestic Violence Act’s failure to define domestic violence, its silence on financial and emotional abuse, and evidentiary requirements that punish survivors for coming forward, Dasilva argued the law is built to respond to violence, not to stop it.

“Our laws must be preventative, not reactive. We cannot keep waiting for a woman to be beaten, broken, or buried before the system takes her seriously,” she said.

Dasilva argued that a law calibrated only to punish after the fact has already failed. “If the law only activates when a woman is already in crisis, then the law is not protecting women -— it is documenting their suffering,” she said.

She called for early intervention: laws recognising coercive control and economic abuse as precursors to physical violence, and lower thresholds for protection orders so women need not wait until they are in danger.

She reinforced the call, recommending specialised sexual offence courts, a national femicide registry, and frontline worker training to match preventative intent with operational capacity.

Participants agreed that legislative reform must be paired with cultural transformation and sustained investment in survivor services. CIWiL Jamaica’s forum is expected to produce formal recommendations for the Bureau of Gender Affairs and relevant parliamentary committees. With gender-based violence rates remaining unacceptably high, the event made clear the voices demanding change are growing louder, and that the time for action is now.

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