"Women and men have equal rights and the same legal status in all spheres of political, economic and social life. All forms of discrimination against women on the basis of their sex is illegal." Article 29 The Constitution of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana Act, 1980.
"Every decision you take, you should ask yourself:"How would Bahamians benefit from this?" This should be the central theme in our country.... One of the problems with the Bahamas is that people speak of a booming economy. But in most of the constituencies we represent, the boom is not felt by most people there. In the Bahamas we have poverty co-existing with burgeoning wealth.... We the PLP, put a tremendous emphasis on all things social." Prime Minister Perry Christie in 2001 when he was the leader of the Opposition PLP (Progressive Liberal Party).
Indeed, the Bahamas has taken centre stage, which makes it even more imperative that it addresses certain social ailments that could retard its progress. According to Professor Hilary Beckles, Professor of History and Pro Vice Chancellor (Student Affairs) as he then was in 2001 at the University of the West Indies,
Though the islands of The Bahamas are physically scattered, it effuses a strong, unified character and cultural cohesion that defied odds in the political construction and social making of an effective nationhood...the Bahamas, while being aware of its own peculiar difficulties, is confident that it is strong, viable and legitimate.
Therefore, to ground it in that legitimacy, it is only fair that we begin with our working definitions, all defined by Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary:
This paper's objective is fourfold; to provide useful data and insights about the present legal position of Bahamian women with particular reference to any disabilities therein; to address the status, shortcomings and reality of these filius nullius illegitimate children; to encourage public discourse on the widespread presence of these children while simultaneously recommending legal reform (either the mandatory registration of fathers or the legal recognition of common law unions of more than five years duration or both). Social commentary in so far as it is relevant and timely is also included.
When I refer to "woman," I contemplate and include wife (including mother or widow) on the one hand or a single woman living in a conjugal relationship with some one other than her husband, and daughter (including granddaughter, stepdaughter or sister).
One disability that has vestigial origins was the law relating to primogeniture (which was a custom that disentitled a female issue, particularly when there was no male issue) from inheriting her father's property. That law is repugnant and contrary to equity and good conscience. So is the practice of sweethearting and irresponsibly sprinkling children in the society like confetti. This 'swath' of illegitimacy disables the child and immediately exposes him/her to discrimination on account of the circumstances of their birth. Under Article 26 (3) of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, these 'illegitimates' are afforded protection from discrimination:
(3) In this Article, the expression "discriminatory" means affording different treatments to different persons attributable wholly or mainly to their respective descriptions by race, place of origin, political opinions, colour or creed whereby persons of one such description are subjected to disabilities or restrictions to which persons of another such description are not made subject or are accorded privileges or advantages which are not accorded to persons of another such description.
However, the Affiliation Proceedings Act, Chapter 133 and The Inheritance Act 2001, goes some way in attempting to 'cure' this defect thereby bestowing a kind of legitimacy and recognition on the 'illegitimate' or out-of-wedlock child. In fact, the long title for the former act states, "An Act to amend and consolidate the law relating to the maintenance of children born out of wedlock". The Inheritance Act, 2001 did five things, namely: it disposes of property where a person dies without a will; it states the rights of certain surviving persons where a person dies intestate (without a will); it outlines the power of the court to vary the terms of a will or the rules of disposition by intestacy where it can be shown that they fail to make reasonable provision for certain persons linked to the deceased by ties of marriage, blood or dependency; it provides certain rights of a surviving spouse to occupy the matrimonial home and restrict the power of other persons to evict them from the house and it abolishes the law as to dower and tenancy by curtsey. What is noteworthy is that children under this act are all children but the illegitimates must prove that they were a dependent, even if the surviving spouse did not know.
Parental responsibility is not automatically vested in any person other than each married parent or the unmarried mother. Should it be? One candidate is the unmarried father...the issue of giving unmarried fathers automatic parental status had been fully canvassed and rejected (P.M. Bromley and N.V.Lowe, Bromley's Family Law 8th ed. Butterworths).
Unless the mothers of out-of-wedlock children decide to take 'delinquent' putative fathers to court to initiate an action under the Affiliation Proceedings Act for maintenance, those fathers would remain for the most part unacknowledged, invisible and unnoticed.
In fact, the Affiliations Proceedings Act, Chapter 133, is there especially for them. Its long title states: "An Act to amend and consolidate the law relating to the maintenance of children born out of wedlock."
One of its anomalies is found in section 3
3(1) Subject to this Act, a single woman who is with child, or who has been delivered of a child, may apply to the court for a Summons to be served on the man alleged by her to be the father of the child (single woman includes a married woman who is reduced to the condition of a single woman by widowhood or otherwise);
(2) An application under section (1) may be made by a woman who was a single woman at the date of the birth of the child, whether or not she is a single woman at the time of the application.
So, the "putative father" can only come into the picture if the woman wishes to put herself through a court hearing. Even then, she must comply with section 4 (time for Application for Summons) by bringing action;
1. at any time within 3 years from the child's birth; or
(a) at any subsequent time, upon proof that the man alleged to be the putative father of the child has within the three years next after birth, paid money or given money's worth for the maintenance of the child;
(b) at any time within twelve months after the return to the Bahamas of the man alleged to be the father of the child, upon proof that he ceased to reside in the Bahamas within the three years next after the birth of the child.
2. A single woman who has been delivered of a child may upon proof that
(a) before the birth of such child, she was a party to a marriage which would have been valid but for the provision of an Act of Parliament whereby the marriage is made void on account of her, or the other party to the marriage, being under the age of fifteen and
(b) the other party to that marriage had access to her within twelve months before the birth;
make at any time an application under section 3 against that party notwithstanding that he may not within the three years next after the birth have paid money or given money's worth for the child's maintenance.
The reality is that despite the presence of this Act on the books, many women cannot be bothered to bring their putative father to court - usually for the following reasons:
Therefore, a majority of women opt out. They name their children using their own name (maiden name) and exclude, extricate the father out of their lives and reduce him to a sperm donor -random survey conducted they relayed that they chose the best of two evils.
Jamaican columnist Dawn Ritch wrote a blistering attack on the cultural crisis in Jamaica November 6, 2005. She could just as easily been writing about the Bahamas.
This disposition in the local population was given free rein by Michael Manley in the 1970s. He declared that there were no bastards, made a law to say so, and has largely been successful in consigning the phrase 'out of wedlock to the dustbin. That was when the bastards started to take over.
Ritch continued her diatribe, highlighting this cultural pickle recalling a conversation between two women and an adolescent male cashier.
the two women said some men are supposed to get 'jackets,' the cashier was giggling nervously. I asked the women why, and they said that men don't look after their natural-born children, so every one of them that can be given a jacket (child not his) should get one. I asked the young fellow what he thought of that and he replied he entirely agreed with them because his own father was such a boops.
I took my change and left because I couldn't bother tell him that the real boops was Michael Manley. Prior to his coming to office, most people were still born out-of-wedlock, but the vast majority of them were far from being bastards. They looked after each other, sought an education, strove to speak standard English, and were unembarrassed if it was fractured. Today, the prevailing ethos among young men is 'you si mi? Mi get five pickney.' No concern. That is something that the men will have to sort out by themselves...such a father can't even give box-juice to his child, much less an education.
Nonetheless, many children still hanker after a father and that could send them into a tailspin. The supplanting of one who is not biologically the child's father does not assuage the child or solve the problem either. It is really left up to the courts. In GvP (1977 VR 44 (Sup. Ct.) KAYE J, at pages 45-48 outlined the history of the law relating to illegitimacy and reviewed the effect of current legislation improving the child's status. He stated thus:
in an appropriate case, the Court might interfere by directing that the mother of an illegitimate child should cause her infant to be known by his putative father's surname.... In former times an illegitimate child commenced his life subject to many and serious disabilities. He entered the world as 'a nameless piece of babyhood' without the right to the surname of either his father or his mother. He was regarded by the law as filius nullius (the child of no one). It was only by accepted practice or custom that he was called by, and registered and baptized under, the name of his mother.... But those considerations are no longer relevant in determining whether a child born out of wedlock should continue to be known by the surname of his putative father. In recent times legislative provisions have substantially altered the status of a child born out of wedlock.... As a consequence of these provisions, an illegitimate child does not commence life as a nameless person, but by operation of law he bears either the surname of his father if the latter's name appears in the Register of Births as his father, or the surname of his mother if his father's name is not recorded ... the law relating to illegitimate children has more recently undergone further and more fundamental changes. These were brought about by the Status of Children Act ... the putative father occupies the same position in law in relation to his natural child as he does to his child born in wedlock. By parental right, a father of an infant is endowed with the guardianship of his infant child.... It follows therefore that ... the father of an illegitimate child is his guardian ... by changing her surname without his consent the respondent infringed his right as the child's natural guardian.
Unfortunately, laws do not cure social defect or right human imperfections and a slavery legacy. The fact that there is an Affiliation Proceedings Act in place along with an Inheritance Act does not erase the legal shortcomings illegitimates experience on a daily basis. Justice must be accessible at minimum cost to all. There should be dignity in the process.
Some of these problems were highlighted by Gloria Cumper (1981):
family life too tended to be unstable and unsatisfactory. Offered in support of this view was the very high percentage of children born out of wedlock.... The family matters of poor persons were dealt with in the Resident Magistrate's Court.... The bulk of these matters were brought ... under the provisions of the Maintenance and Bastards (later Affiliation) laws.... In any six month period ... these applications would number two or three thousand, with affiliation claims outnumbering those for maintenance of legitimate family members.... The strict rules governing the right to make application under the Affiliation Act, reinforced the link between poverty and birth of out-of-wedlock children, and made both seem discreditable ... hearings in Affiliation matters were lumped together to be heard at the end of the week, and the determination of paternity for the purpose of making an affiliation order was often disposed of without any recognition of the consequences for either the children or adults involved.... [Also brought to public attention were] the hardships suffered by such children who, by reason of the circumstances of their birth, were prevented from succeeding to the property of a father who had died intestate, even though paternity was never in doubt. Conflict was especially intense when the property was family land upon which they had lived, and probably worked, all of their lives. The discrimination suffered by the illegitimate child under the law is easy to see.
That was in 1981. Today, the same frustrations are being experienced by Bahamians. Only they are at the Royal Victoria Gardens and it is on a daily basis.
This means that the Bahamian woman remains legally disabled once she commits the infraction of having out-of-wedlock children. Why? Because in a real sense, unless she calls on the 'absent' father or takes him to court, her children will remain 'invisible and legally disenfranchised. (See Article 26B of the Bahamas Constitution (supra). Her situation is exacerbated if she is in a common law relationship with a man who has been separated from his wife for 25 years or more. Perhaps she can become more circumspect in her relations and remember years or more. In any event, she can avail herself of the law.
Everything and nothing. For example, illegitimate children usually carry their mother's surname. Partly because they didn't know who their father was and he was not 'introduced' until the mother decided that she needed some kind of assistance. (See the Affiliation Proceedings Act below).
According to the Vital Statistics Report for the Commonwealth of the Bahamas for 2003, there were 2090 children born in-wedlock compared to 2835 born out of wedlock. For the year 1968, there were 2932 children born in-wedlock compared to 1160 born out-of-wedlock. Therefore, it appears then that illegitimacy is on the rise and perhaps marriages are on the decrease. Compare the following in and out of wedlock statistics: 1995: 1912 to 2,270; 1996: 1819 to 2235; 1997: 1731 to 2300; 1998: 1808 to 2257; 1999: 1522 to 2032; 2000: 1904 to 2584; 2001: 1932 to 2514.
Further on comparing the statistical data for The Labour Force and its Components for the Bahamas 2005; the unemployment rate was 10.2% but highest among women at 11.2%; the total labour force was 178,705 of which 87,540 were women and 91,165 men. Linda Carty, Chair, African American Studies Department, Syracuse University, New York, writing a piece for the YouWe Quality Education Forum had this to say about Caribbean society and women's contributions:
Women in the Caribbean make a significant contribution to their societies through their primary roles in the overall process of reproduction and production. Across class, the vast majority of women in the region have always engaged in wage work and their wages have hardly been supplemental to that of men in their families. Furthermore, the notion that "women are responsible for the family" is also a reality that transcends class boundaries.
Even among the most privileged classes (a very small proportion of the population), where men as the primary wage earners may contribute a significant portion of their incomes to the upkeep of the family, it is the woman who make decisions and implement strategies around management and maintenance of the family. Although this labour is neither acknowledged nor compensated, it is key to the entire process of the social reproduction of the family and economy.... The ideology that governs the state today is the same that it inherited almost a half a century ago, upon independence, with its roots in a white colonial structure and patriarchal focus.... Caribbean Society is one in which women are central to productive and reproductive development, but ideologically they remain peripheral in analyses and policies of development.
That is the point. Despite her integral role as a changeguager and coagulant in the Bahamian society, the Bahamian woman still has no real legal redress for her illegitimate offspring.
The status of out-of-wedlock or illegitimate children is intrinsically tied to their legal recognition. In the Bahamas, which espouses to be a Christian nation, it is possible to encounter arguments (especially from the Christian Council) which state emphatically that the 'legal recognition' of these bastards or filius nullius children is against public policy. Further, that it legitimizes 'extra marital affairs or sweethearting' and makes a mockery of the Christian marriage. Nothing could be further from the truth.
According to Justice G.N. Williams, in his article, "Importance of Public Policy Considerations in Judicial Decision Making," at page 134,
In Richards v Mellish, Burrough J (1824) 2 Bing. 229; 130 ER 294, "I, for one, protest ... against arguing too strongly upon public policy, it is a very unruly horse, and when once you get astride it you never know where it will carry you. It may lead you from the sound law. It is never argued at all but when other points fail."
Justice Williams continued to explain that in response to what is meant by public policy, "the development of the common law, over the intervening 180 years has been significantly dependent upon changes in what judges perceived to be public policy impacting on the law."
Illegitimate children, like death and taxes, have always been with us. If the law is to be a 'mirror' of society and social mores, then arguably, these children and their concomitant rights ought to have been recognized either explicitly or implicitly. Justice Williams quotes two well-respected Australian judges who gave working definitions of public policy. Isaacs J in Wilkinson v Osborne, a contract case, stated at 97 (1915) 21 CLR 89:
In my opinion the 'public policy' which a court is entitled to apply as a test of validity to a contract is in relation to some definite and governing principle which the community as a whole has already either adopted either formally by law, or tacitly by its general course of corporate life, and which the courts of the country can therefore recognize and enforce. The court is not a legislator: it cannot initiate the principle; it can only state or formulate it if it already exists.
Herein enters Parliament.
Jordan CJ in Re:Jacob Morris (deceased) said at (1943) SR NSW 352 at 355:
The phrase "public policy" appears to mean ideas which for the time being prevail in a community as to the condition necessary to ensure its welfare; so that anything is treated as against public policy if it is generally regarded as injurious to the public interest.... It is well settled that a contract is not enforceable if its enforcement would be opposed to public policy ... public policy is not; however, fixed and stable. From generation to generation ideas change as to what is necessary or injurious, so that "public policy" is a variable thing. It must fluctuate with the circumstance of time.... New heads of public policy come into being and old laws undergo modification.
Therefore, in 2006, where the statistics categorically state that in 2003, 2835 children were born out-of-wedlock, as opposed to 2090 in-wedlock, then it becomes a matter of "public policy" and public interest, that they are recognized as being equal in every respect under the law. Legislators ought to contemplate this and not just pay lip service or partially reflect it in The Inheritance Act, 2001 and The Affiliations Proceedings Act or the Status of Children Act - but in all legislation pertaining to children. So that, when a statute addresses "child," we need not wonder if one is referring to in or out of wedlock children since all would be legally recognized as being equals. The terms would be interchangeable. But see Jamaican columnist Dawn Ritch's comment supra.
Justice Williams, in his article, states a major reality at page 135:
in an age when few can afford the luxury of litigation, even where fundamental rights are involved, if the rule of law is to be upheld and rights of individuals protected then finding assistance for litigation within certain bounds, becomes a matter of public interest and importance.
The question is that many illegitimate children in and of themselves, would not take their erstwhile 'putative' fathers to court because of reprisals, embarrassment and ignorance.
Nevertheless, the option ought to remain open to them. Judges also need training in this regard. I agree or concur with Williams J as he concludes his informative piece at page 139:
It is also imperative that judges remember that the notion of public policy for purposes of our law exists independently of the personal beliefs of the judges who constitute the court. That is why in some of the cases it has been said that evidence and analysis and argument are required before a court may hold that changes in public policy warrant a change in the common law. One of the features of the common law is that it is dynamic; it is susceptible of change to meet prevailing social conditions. Wherever there is a change in the common law, whether it be a slight change in direction or the dramatic overturning of a previously recorded position, one can be sure that the notion of public policy has played a major role in the judicial reasoning process ... public policy is the back-bone of the common law, it provides its strength and mobility. The task of the judge is to regulate the force it exerts and its direction.
Why this is needed to clear up identity and heredity issues concerning illegitimate children? Putative fathers with concerns should request DNA tests and pay for them.
Here's why?
Major Jason Kaar, Assistant Professor of Military and Emergency Medicine, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Bethesda, Maryland made the following observations in his article, "Genetic Data, Privacy and Discrimination":
In the 17th century when Anton Von Leewenhoek first looked through his microscope and found what he later described as "little animals," it was impossible for him to know that the future importance of his discovery and that it would lead to opening the secrets of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)...DNA has become the gold standard on which the legal system and medical community are making determinations. This three foot strand of 46 chromosomes (23 from each parent) is present in every cell of a person's body. Because of the nature of DNA, it is different in every person with the possible exception of identical twins. It is estimated that the odds against duplication are from one in a billion to one in one hundred billion. (It is important to note that the world population is approximately six billion). The actual reliability depends on the test used and way it is performed. (See Maten Game: How DNA's Detectives Wield High-Tech Tools, Washington Post, 10 August, 1998.)
While paternity might not always be a key issue in illegitimacy proceedings, in respect of the child, it is fundamental to the operation/facilitation of the Affiliations Proceedings Act, Chapter 133 (Bah.). For example, it is only after the mother could satisfy the court that "A" is the putative father of her offspring by virtue of his deeds/acts within the first 3 years of the child's life (things like supporting or maintaining her by purchasing diapers, paying hospital bills and the like) that his recognition as a parent becomes known. Moreover, he need not become known at all, if she never accesses the Affiliation Act. Now for fathers who want an out, then the DNA test is the ticket. Says Karr, "typical clients involved in custody disputes include men both disputing and fighting to establish paternity and 'black-haired dads who wonder why their kids sport carrot tops.'"
In Maryland, the State Supreme Court recently ruled that men who had acknowledged paternity and had been supporting a child that they once believed to be theirs cannot now request and obtain DNA testing and prove or disprove paternity through use of this genetic evidence.
The decision angered many. One concern is that children who thought they had or knew who their fathers were will now not have a father figure in their lives and then such children may now become wards of the State.
Bahamian women are phenomenal. They have children - quite often without benefit of marriage, which leads to a legal dispensation or aberration (irregularity). Then, by virtue of some man-made law, what Patchett called the reception of law (of course referring to the region's acceptance of its colonial master's laws - pre-independence), these children were born into a life of inequality and discrimination. Here we see where their ultimate 'legal status' is determined by that of their parents. In her seminal book, Elements of Child Law in the Commonwealth Caribbean, Zanifa McDowell explains the predicament that many Caribbean families find themselves in and admonishes the legislatures to recognize illegitimate or out-of-wedlock children and not punish them for the shortcomings of their parents. She says:
In view of the current trend amongst many legislatures of the region to award equal rights to both in- and out-of-wedlock children, it is thus recommended that countries which have not yet done so, abolish the unnatural yet firmly held fiction that an out-of-wedlock child is merely the offspring of its mother.
There is no real basis for legally discriminating against a child with exclusion from all of the important things of life such as exclusion from his family, exclusion from a name, and exclusion from his right to inherit because his parents were sexually irresponsible. In view of the fact that countries in the region have ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and have therefore formally indicated a commitment to acknowledging and preserving children's rights, it is now time that they live up to this commitment by declaring within their domestic law that all children, regardless of their birth status, are entitled to the same rights.
Perhaps the Caribbean Parliamentarians thought that legislatively they might be able to correct things. Says McDowell:
Further the enactment of the legislation (Status of Children Acts) also demonstrates the modern sensitivity of the law to social reality which no doubt has a positive influence on the growth of West Indian jurisprudence. According to Henriques, "I would say that illegitimacy, such as it is, is in fact the norm in the Caribbean rather than the other way around", so it is indeed laudable that Parliament has given effect to the need to legally recognize the out-of-wedlock child.
It is noteworthy that the aforementioned Status of Children Acts evolved more in a response on the part of law makers, but also one from Society, which was undergoing its own metamorphosis in the early 60s in their bid to forego discrimination in democratic societies.
According to Mindie Lazarus-Black, "the effects of the passing of these laws were seen as bringing "half" siblings closer together" and of strengthening families so that the reformed laws would more closely reflect the structure of the communities within the legal system.
In fact, Grady Miller attributed the reason for the eventual legal protection of the out-of-wedlock or illegitimate child is based on necessity stating, "children born without the benefit of parental marriage were in many cases treated as unwanted and unaccounted for and only through necessity appeared to gradually gain the protection of the law."
That was only for some Caribbean states like Jamaica, Dominica and Grenada. Even then, according to McDowell some discriminatory provisions were kept in section 3(4) of the Act. She says:
Be reminded that the Jamaican Status of Children Act 1976 opens with a preamble which states that it is "an act to remove the legal disabilities of children born out of wedlock." The content of Section 3(4) however, in no way lives up to the spirit of the preamble nor to the Act in general, thus the act to some extent remains unfulfilled. [But see Dawn Ritch's comments: author's note.] The act has therefore transformed the position of the out-of-wedlock child only in a limited way, so that the discriminatory provisions unfortunately, negate any absolute conviction or belief that no adverse consequences flow for the child from the non-marital status of the child's parents.
In the Bahamas, we are probably where Jamaica was pre-1962 as we share a colonial history. Therefore, before the region began to contemplate Status of Children legislation, the Commonwealth Caribbean, through its colonial reception of the English system appeared to have legally received or adopted the position that unions created by a marriage were the only recognizable legal relationships. In fact, the law did not (in the Bahamas still does not) recognize the proliferation of numerous common law and/or visiting relationships, nor the issues (i.e. children) of such unions - who today are still seen as 'bastards.' Therefore, this 'filius nullius' non-recognition had certain consequences flowing from it. Explained Mindie Lazarus-Black:
This jural model conceived of marriage as a contractual agreement bestowing specific rights and duties.... English kinship began with a contractual agreement but was thereafter traced in blood. Law emphasized the father's line, legitimacy, and primogeniture. Kinship ... equated bastard children with criminals and aliens. The crucial importance of the jural model is that power over persons and things were placed in the hands of legitimate men. Fathers and husbands were awarded power; mothers, wives and bastards were not. The jural model of kinship validated and perpetuated a pragmatic set of political and economic relationships. Theoretically and practically, women's and bastard children's inferiority was related to and legitimized by their overall relation to property.
McDowell summarized the position:
Status of children legislation however has made fundamental inroads into the straight and narrow path of common law, consequences of which enabled the out-of-wedlock child not only to claim entitlement to maintenance, but also to family property on the death of a parent. The legislation has attempted to remedy the obvious inadequacies of the common law, and realistically, to herald the recognition by the law and by society of social reality as it obtains in the Commonwealth Caribbean.
Any child born to a man and a woman who are not married to each other;
It affects the whole concept of the identity of a family unit and subsequently family life; thereby shifting the paradigm resulting in children being related to each other without knowing it; familial names handed down not reflective of the fathers who sired them; the children contracting diseases which are hereditary and the unwitting ultimate blending of the lines of consanguinity. This leads to any number of social ailments including exposing the child to hatred, embarrassment and a cycle of violence and abuse.
The Punch columnist, Journalist Nicki Kelly in her column, dated Monday, April 25, 2005: Between the lines, "Fathers entitled to be part of their children's lives," vividly describes how these illegitimate children become victims of abuse from early family life perpetuated by "promiscuous mothers and absent fathers":
and where those children live is usually in single parent households shared with siblings fathered by different men, who may or may not be known to the children, and who almost certainly play no role in their lives. It is also very likely that these youngsters are subject to abuse from a resentful mother who was little more than a child herself when she started giving birth, or from the procession of sweethearts moving in and out of the household. The abuse continues outside the home, where the child comes in contact with other adults who are similarly abusive because of their own upbringing, thus perpetuating the cycle of abuse.
Child psychologist Dr Novia Carter-Higgs says statistics show that one in every 10 students in The Bahamas is or has been the victim of some form of child abuse. Dr Carter-Higgs points to six forms of child abuse - psychological, physical and sexual abuse, and physical, emotional and educational neglect. However, psychological abuse has a more far-reaching impact on the quality of life of its victims because it affects the very foundation of their lives, making them feel worthless.
The abuse, she says, is perpetuated by parents, family and in some cases teachers, who constantly berate the child as "dumb, stupid and worthless like your pa", among other destructive comments. Persons who are the victims of psychological abuse are the ones who will commit violent and heinous acts and have no remorse for their actions, she says. Therefore, child abuse doesn't just affect schools or the church community. "It affects the very fibre upon which we build our nation." It is apparent from the viciousness of the recent attacks by young people against each other, that there is a great deal of pent up rage within these individuals that need to be addressed. And one of the reasons is the attitude of Bahamian women to the fathers of their children" Social Services Minister Melanie Griffin acknowledged that under the existing law unmarried fathers have limited rights.
She has had a committee looking at the law with a view to updating it. The exclusion of fathers from the parenting process raises an interesting question as it relates to Minister Griffin's efforts to introduce a court-mandated system that will compel parents of at-risk children, or those who pass through the juvenile court system, to attend a parenting skills program. What role if any, are fathers expected to play in this program, and can it be effective if fathers are excluded?
Children, especially young boys, need the presence of a father figure who can act as a positive role model. In this society, the male has been relegated to the role of stud bull and little more, with the result that children are left solely in the care of mothers unable to satisfy their psychological needs. This in turn leads to unruly behavior, involvement in bad company, and ultimately criminal activity, unless there is early intervention. If we are going to save our children, we must start by being brutally honest with ourselves about where we as a society have gone wrong, then begin to set things right.
Therefore we must look to Parliament and our legislators.
In fact, about two months ago at the opening of the first Commonwealth Women Parliamentarian's meeting in the Bahamas, Prime Minister Perry Christie acknowledged this. He said:
Women have always been the bedrock of democracies ... when we look at the democracy of a country, women have been in the vanguard; one only has to look at what makes up political support - political caucus and how best to reach the people who will vote for the party and we will find that ... women are usually the core, central focus of getting that movement going and this is reflected rightly in the challenge arising out of the rapid progression of women vis-à-vis men ... not every woman and man would want to get married - what does this mean for the future of our country? There is an extraordinary increase in the education and the women are moving forward in larger numbers - what of the men?
To date, women constitute 20% of Parliament. 23.3% are in the Cabinet 33.3% are in the Senate. Yet, this issue of the status and rights of illegitimate children is still not resolved.
The role of Bahamian women and their internecine relationship, especially with their illegitimate or out-of-wedlock offsprings cannot be overemphasized. Apart from being nature's most bountiful and untapped resource, women are major stakeholders in the Bahamas' changing culture.
For the nation to embrace the full potential of its women and their illegitimate children and the changing face of the composition of 'the family' there must be substantial legal reform. To the extent, that the difference between legitimate and illegitimate children is done away with (via the law); common law unions are recognized as between a single man and a single woman who have cohabited continually for 5 years or more; only then will women be able to become empowered and major players in the societal playing field as integral members with full rights to allow their children to inherit from their fathers irrespective of their non-marriage and to this end, implementing the Status of Children Act and the inclusion of rights recognizing the Putative father.
Bromley, P.M. and N.V. Lowe, Bromley's Family Law 8th ed. Butterworths.
Carty, Linda, Gender Relations at UWI and Beyond: The more things change the more they remain the same. YouWe Quality Education Forum, UWI, No.8, May 2002.
Cumper, Gloria, Planning and Implementing the Family Court Project, Jamaica, Working Paper No. 27 (Mona, Jamaica: ISER, University of the West Indies), 1981.
Forde Norma Monica, Women and the law, Women in the Caribbean Project (Mona, Jamaica: ISER, University of the West Indies 1981)
Kaar, Jason, "Genetic Data, Privacy and Discrimination," International Legal Practitioner, December 2000.
Lazarus-Black, Mindie, Legitimate Acts and Illegal Encounters: Law and Society in Antigua and Barbados, Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994.
McDowell, Zanifa, Elements of Child Law in the Commonwealth Caribbean, Kingston, University of the West Indies Press, 2000.
Miller, Grady, "Illegitimacy and Survivorship, The case against High Technology Births," Caribbean Law Review 7, no. 2, 630 (Dec. 1997).
Morley, Gina P. "The Legal Position of Bahamian Women" in the Nassau Guardian.
Thompson-Ahye, Hazel, Women and Family Law and Related Issues 229 Questions Answered, 2002.
The Commonwealth of the Bahamas, Vital Statistics Report, 2003
The Constitution of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas.
Williams, G.N., "Importance of Public Policy Considerations in Judicial Decision Making," International Legal Practitioner, December 2000.
© Gina P. Morley, 2006.
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