ICAAD Expands Work in the Caribbean

Last month, the ICAAD team travelled to Jamaica to expand our efforts to tackle gender-based violence (GBV) in the country and region.

Our TrackGBV project has been a key focus for the past nine years in the Pacific. By identifying bias and discrimination in judicial decision-making, the dashboard has facilitated advocacy for more consistent and equitable decision-making. With data from over 2500 cases from nine Pacific Island Countries, it has already helped to support judicial and legislative change.

Following requests from non-profit partners, we are now scaling this work to the Caribbean – beginning with a focus on building strong local partnerships with civil society and government while analyzing key metrics for service delivery in the justice sector. Across the region, rates of GBV are high and heavily underreported, and systems are in dire need of resources and reform.

In Jamaica, ICAAD Co-Founders Hansdeep Singh and Jaspreet Singh met with dozens of stakeholders to support transparency, consistency, and accountability within the justice system by leveraging the law, data, design justice, and advocacy.

Hansdeep commented on the visit: “We had a host of productive meetings in Jamaica with our partners as we discussed the many challenges that GBV survivors face while trying to access justice in the country – whether through resource constraints, institutional barriers, outdated legislation, or discriminatory practices. We look forward to continuing our work with all our partners to co-create projects that can address these gaps and build more equitable systems.”

Jaspreet and Hansdeep of ICAAD with Tracy Robinson, Professor of Law at UWI-Mona and previously Commissioner on the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and Rapporteur on the Rights of Women for the OAS.