Specific information on the above subject is currently unavailable to the DIRB. Attempts were made to contact a representative of a Barbados crisis centre, as well as a journalist/activist but these sources could not be reached in time to meet your deadline.

Information on the 28 January 1992 domestic and sexual offences and on court sentences and the attitudes of judges in cases of rape and assault, is contained in the attached excerpt from the U.S. Department of State's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1992 (1993, 333-34).

In addition, please find attached an excerpt on Barbados from the Report of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, submitted at the eleventh session of the General Assembly of the United Nations (United Nations 24 June 1992, 18-26). Paragraph 49 of the report mentions that there are shelters for battered women, a telephone hotline crisis service and a mass media programme (Ibid., 23).

This response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the DIRB within time constraints. This response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.

United Nations. 24 June 1992. Report of the Committee on the Discrimination Against Women. New York: United Nations.

Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1992. 1993. United States Department of State. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office.

United Nations. 24 June 1992. Report of the Committee on the Discrimination Against Women. New York: United Nations.

Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1992. 1993. United States Department of State. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office.