More will be done to help victims of abuse – Attorney General

-Hope and Justice Centre to be constructed

As the government seeks to modernise and reform the justice sector, more will be done to help victims of domestic violence and other forms of abuse.

Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, SC said recently that his ministry is collaborating with the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security to construct a Hope and Justice Centre.

“It’s a unique concept that we have designed, and it will be a home that will accommodate domestic violence victims, sexual abuse victims, trafficking in persons victims and it will be equipped with social workers medical personnel, police presence will be there and hopefully we have a lawyer there as well,” Minister Nandlall stated.

The centre will accommodate persons who have no place to stay or those whose only option is to return to the source of the abuse.

“It’s going to be, for want of a better word, a halfway house for domestic violence victims etc, it’s a pilot project that we are doing in Region Four , on the East Coast of Demerara, in Region Three and Region One, and once the pilot is successfully executed, it will be replicated across all the administrative regions in our country,” he said.

Also, the Domestic Violence Act will be updated, “The domestic violence act will be repealed soon, and it will be replaced by a new one, a Family Violence Bill that will be modern, that will be both civil and criminal, ” the minister highlighted.