PAJ supports Bar Association position on Incest Act
February 18, 2007
The Press Association of Jamaica has given its support to a submission made by the Jamaica Bar Association to the committee deliberating the Incest (Punishment) Act recommending that cousins be brought within the ambit of the Act.
Making a submission to the committee during Wednesday's sitting, first vice-president of the PAJ, Hylton Dennis, said "to do otherwise would be a travesty of justice if relations that are not blood relations like step-parents and persons in loco parentis relationships are included".
"We do not support the view advanced that the historical practice of excluding cousins should stand, or that prominent persons in society who are known to have indulged in sexual relations with a cousin, leading to marriages in some instances, would now be regarded with disgust as a consequence of the amendment," Dennis argued.
The PAJ's argument was in relation to one of the main areas of change in the act which proposes to, among other things, broaden the scope of persons who can be found guilty of the offence. Such persons include, among others, aunts and uncles, nephews and nieces and persons in loco parentis relationships (ie persons who are not parents but are in parental-type relationships with children).
According to the PAJ, 'first cousins' should at least be considered under the list of persons.
But Government Senator Donna Scott-Mottley, who was far from happy with the proposal, cautioned against this, arguing instead that legislators were to bear in mind the particular mischief that the bill sought to address.
"I oppose that proposal. Because of our culture, you have gentlemen out there who have numerous children who don't even know they are related. sometimes they even go by different names," she pointed out, noting that in instances persons have found themselves romantically and sexually involved and upon deciding to get married discover that they are related.
"Sometimes you have to look at the mischief which you are trying to address, and the mischief you are trying to address is not the fact of people having those kinds of sexual relationships; we are talking about an incest punishment act which is dealing with situations that are taking place within the household where the person forcing themself on the other individual has power, dominance, control and authority," the senator argued....
Author: Alicia Dunkley
Source: Jamaica Observer
