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enlightened legal professionals otherwise engaged in modernising outdated laws.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.)
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