Delroy Chuck’s comments were reasonable

Dear Editor,

I think the remarks or the limit that Delroy Chuck, the minister of justice, initially made for a one-year deadline to report harassment is reasonable. So I don’t understand why such an outcry.

Think of this, the younger the incident the better memories one will have. Also, there is the possibility that the witnesses, if any, are still around, so I believe that whenever something untoward happens to a woman by the hands of a man she must report it at the earliest possible moment while it’s fresh and vivid in her head. To me, the longer it takes the women may lose some memory of exactly what was said or how things did unfold.

So I support Chuck’s statement of a one-year limit on reporting any incident of sexual abuse, sexual harassment, or any other type of harm that is done to any woman in Jamaica.

What we have to do is to put laws in place to ensure the accused cannot try to intimidate or threaten the victim. And then, let’s encourage all women who are victims to report their ordeal at the earliest possible time to the police or a minister of religion.