The government is moving to implement a programme, which will provide for the establishment of shelters and half-way-houses across the island, for battered women and girls.

Minister of Information, Youth, Culture and Sports, Olivia Grange, who made the announcement at a training workshop on gender-based violence held on November 28 at the Terra Nova Hotel, said that within the coming year "I will be working assiduously with the Bureau of Women's Affairs and other partners to devise a shelter strategy, which will make the provision of at least three shelters throughout the island a reality."

The move, she said, is to address the "serious displacement, homelessness and hopelessness that women, who face domestic crisis, often suffer."

Noting the range of physical and psychological ailments that many battered women suffer, Minister Grange noted that these documented stories are disturbing, especially with the knowledge that death is often the ultimate consequence of the violent acts.

In the Jamaican context, she noted that statistics on reported sexual offences for 2006, which indicate that there were 707 cases of rape, 433 cases of carnal abuse, 149 cases of indecent assault and 28 cases of incest "were far too high."

"We must continue to work aggressively to put strategies and policies in place to effectively, address these abuses," she urged.