Model Guidelines For Dealing With Sexual Offences

Model guidelines for dealing with sexual offences where children are involved and for the court’s handling of sexual offences cases and sexual offences victims.

Although progress has been made in the Caribbean region in promoting gender equality, there are still many aspects which are troubling and remain unresolved, chief among these being sexual violence against women, young girls and boys.

The region experiences a high level of sexual and domestic violence which is often under-reported and ineffectively dealt with by the justice system. Although the reasons for this are many, gender inequality in the justice system is at the root of the problem. This activity sets out a number of initiatives that will markedly improve the capacity of regional courts to handle these types of cases efficiently and provide more accurate data on how these cases are being dealt with.

This activity will also provide a comprehensive approach to resolution of this problem through establishing the requirements for new legislation, best practices, training, sensitization, technologies, victim support programs including ideal protection for victims, counselling, and documentation for ongoing access by the courts throughout the region.