Dying a Criminal

On Tuesday December 7, 2021, at about nine in the morning, I received one of the worst telephone calls of my life.

Less than 12 hours before, I had swapped food stories with an exiled Venezuelan journalist/communication expert and discussed how this once-accomplished professional could have moved away from cleaning houses in Trinidad and operated at her full potential in the Caribbean. She had big plans for herself. There was a hint of hope. Or so I thought.

In 2019, she had participated in a regional, journalistic project under the banner of the Caribbean Investigative Journalism Network (CIJN) examining Venezuela’s PetroCaribe efforts in the Caribbean.

Once the pandemic arrived, (and between housekeeping assignments) she also worked on a Spanish-language communication plan to encourage Venezuelan nationals in T&T to get tested for COVID-19.

Tragically, even if she had survived the dreadful hours prior to that December 7 call, it would not have been the end of the issue either psychologically or at law.

In fact, she would have faced the prospect of up to two years in prison for breaching the Offences Against the Person Act - legislation based on common law principles that sought to encapsulate longstanding, colonial-era, moral, religious and other social order imperatives.

On Monday, I was jolted back to December 2021 when I followed the proceedings of a “Kick-Off” webinar hosted by the Caribbean Regional Coalition for the Decriminalisation of Suicide.

The testimonies of professionals engaged in this effort, co-chaired by psychologist Dr Margaret Nakhid-Chatoor of T&T and including Caribbean and international experts and advocates, highlighted the anomalous, anachronistic nature of anti-suicide laws.

All the while, I was there trying to understand: what could possibly be the obstacles to decriminalising suicide/attempted suicide? The current effort by this coalition focuses on the countries of Saint Lucia, Grenada, The Bahamas, and T&T – all with sophisticated and enlightened legal professionals otherwise engaged in modernising outdated laws.

Indeed, as a mere amateur, I wondered if a suicide attempt is successful, its unlawful nature becomes moot. A corpse plays no role in a courtroom, especially as an accused criminal. And, if the effort is unsuccessful, in what ways does imprisonment address the underlying factors that led to such an attempt? This borders on the absurd!

In 2022, the government of Guyana struck the offence off its law books. When that happened, I recalled the efforts of organisations such as the Guyana Press Association (GPA) 12 years before this, to improve media coverage of suicides in order that journalists not contribute to additional suicides and suicide attempts through unprofessional media coverage.

I also participated in a similar exercise in T&T around that same time, and I am aware that there have since been more.

Could it be, I wondered, that such focus on media coverage of the growing incidence of suicide might just have contributed to second thoughts by the government of Guyana on the matter, eventually leading to the repeal of such an outdated law?

Among the numerous learnings from these experiences is the fact, as stated by Dr Nakhid-Chatoor on Monday, suicide is a mental health issue and not a criminal act, even as the supposed deterrent effect of such a law is completely unproven. In fact, in Guyana, the law was “replaced” by a National Suicide Prevention Plan.

The people who inspired such laws in the colonies, the English, themselves repealed the offence in 1961 – even before we became independent in 1962. Now, as we know, we do not automatically follow enlightened thinking by the people who imposed such laws in the first place.

We still have the death penalty (ironically adjudicated upon in the final instance by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council) despite it being finally abolished in the UK since 1998 - after being suspended about 30 years before that.

The death penalty is a much tougher knot to untangle here because of the thirst for vengeance in the current scenario, but decriminalising attempted suicide and suicide itself should in 2024 be a routine, simple, uncontentious act.

Attorney General, Reginald Armour, has a lot on his hands. But I am assuming there is nothing much to this, and that Opposition support should not be problematic. It should be in all manifestoes.

Let it not be said in the future that we had friends and family who died as criminals, but that the resources of the society and the state were expended more meaningfully on addressing this disturbing public health issue.

(Please note: The National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 800-COPE and Lifeline can be reached at 800-5588, 866-5433 and 220-3636.)