Dear Editor,
Kaieteur News has reported about the challenges facing the government in ensuring access to justice for survivors of sexual assault… (KN 9 April, 2026) “Human Services minister blasts police, others for ‘push around’ of sexual assault victims”.
The ministry’s transparency with the public is important, as it highlights a breakdown among the different state agencies responsible for justice.
Section 87 of the Sexual Offences Act 2010 mandates that the president should convene a National Task Force for the Prevention of Sexual Offences. The very active Ministry of Human Services and Social Security social media shows that this task force was convened in November 2021, but it seems no further work has been done on the 14 activities of the force. The ministry is actively doing its own work to deal with sexual and gender-based violence, including trafficking in persons.
Is it time then for the president to check in on the national task force and find out how the members intend to fix the problems which the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security has highlighted and let the public know what the actions are so that the public could hold the government agencies accountable for the fixes.