GOMES... our parliamentarians have gone quite crazy

HUMAN rights watchdog group, Jamaicans for Justice and two women's advocacy groups yesterday sharply rejected proposals by two parliamentarians to have virginity checks on schoolgirls and compulsory sterilisation on young women.

"This is absolute intrusion into people's privacy," executive director for Jamaicans for Justice, Dr Carolyn Gomes, told the Observer. "A democracy is built on individual rights and individual freedom and equality, so the concept of forced sterilisation and virginity checks are completely contrary to the principle of equality and freedom embodied in democracy."

WEDDERBURN... proposals are gender-biased

The proposals were made, Tuesday, by opposition parliamentarian, Ernie Smith, and government member, Sharon Hay-Webster, as part of a strategy to combat unwanted pregnancies and poverty in Jamaica.

According to Smith, tests should be done on all schoolgirls returning to school to see if their virginity is still intact. Meanwhile, Hay-Webster suggested compulsory sterilisation of young women who have at least three children.

HAY-WEBSTER... suggested compulsory sterilisation of young women who have at least three children

But yesterday, Dr Gomes expressed disappointment at the suggestions, saying those utterances "are taking the attention away from a more serious problem in children's homes that the state should be doing something about".

"This goes to show that our parliamentarians have gone quite crazy," she said. "What we need is public education programmes for (schoolgirls) and the prosecution of the perpetrators who are getting these girls pregnant."

SMITH... suggested virginity checks on schoolgirls

"We need to enforce the existing laws and not have a wholesale invasion of people's privacy," she added.

And co-ordinator of public education and legal reform at Women's Inc, Joyce Hewett, argued that while the issue of unwanted and unplanned pregnancies is a "real problem", the solution has to be something that safeguards the individual's rights.

"Yes there is an immediate problem -- a major one too -- but the response to that problem needs to be a bit more logical than that," she said.

Both proposals, Hewett said, are a breach of women's rights.

"How dare anybody consider an invasion of a person's body," she fumed.

Though not suggesting it was an issue for valid consideration, Hewett said sterilisation of women even after two or three children would prove too late.

As for the virginity checks, the women's rights advocate questioned: "Where will we be heading with that. Virginity checks, then what?"

The issue of unplanned and unwanted pregnancies, according to Hewett, does not lie solely with females but is also the responsibility of the men involved "who need to wake up and take responsibility and get the message in the heads of their peers to stop 'making children' all over the place".

"So if they are considering surgical procedures for the ladies then they should consider vasectomy and lobotomy for the men," she argued.

Vasectomy is a surgical contraceptive measure for men while lobotomy is a type of brain surgery.

"Men are responsible and therefore the politicians should be pointing to laws to have them punished," Hewett said, calling for laws to provide for safe abortion for women who get pregnant through victimisation and incest.

Head lecturer in charge of the University of the West Indies' Centre for Gender and Development Studies, June Castello, agreed that part of the blame should be shifted to the men involved.

"Pregnancy is not achieved by one sex, it is a collaborative effort," she stressed. "I can't see where the argument will go if it continues with this tendency that we have to locate the responsibility for sexual behaviour and its outcomes exclusively as a woman's responsibility."

Castello however suggested a more careful look at the issue, to show young men and women that pregnancy is both a "joint responsibility and a serious activity".

"We can't trivialise and decide that it is the responsibility of only one party," she added.

Judith Wedderburn, a member of Women's Media Watch, described the proposals as gender-biased.

"It is really unfortunate that they are putting the blame on the girls," she said. "The proposals are in line with the type of gender bias that is putting the burden on the shoulders of the girls."

She contended that the proposals should not assume that the other party (males) are young men as data often revealed that it is older men who are involved in such acts.

"And if they were really interested in these girls they would see to their welfare and education instead of just satisfying their selfish male desire," she noted.

She recommended public education and "one-on-one" workshops for the problem group, to bring the gender issue to the fore.

"We want to see to it that the burden of the problem is a joint one and not blame the girls," she added.

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