Guyana to update its suicide legislation

Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony is mulling taking a suicide-prevention Bill to the
National Assembly this year to update what he calls the country’s current “outdated” laws.
“When you look at our laws, our laws are really outdated. It goes back to the time of the British
and even in the 1930s and you might know that apart of those laws, if you attempt suicide in
Guyana, then you can be jailed for at least two years and that is still on the books,” Minister
Anthony said.
He continued “We haven’t used it for a while but from the stats you have seen for every person
who commit suicide there are at least 20 persons who would have attempted suicide, so
technically if we have 147 persons who died of suicide over the last year, then multiply that by
20, you can see how many people would have ended up in jail.”
Dr Anthony noted that Guyana’s Criminal Law Offences Act Chapter 8:01 (97) imposes jail time
for persons who attempt suicide. The existing law labels attempted suicide a “misdemeanor” and
the individual is liable to two years jail.
The minister made the observation while delivering remarks at the opening of the three-day
Guyana Mental Health and Well-Being Conference, at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre
Monday. The event was a collaborative effort among the Guyana Government, the US-based
National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute of Health and the Pan American Health
Organisation (PAHO) with assistance from Columbia University.
The health minister recalled over the last four years there were Parliamentary discussions with
PAHO which was prepared to be in the vanguard of raising awareness on the matter, but was
unsuccessful.
“Over the last couple of months however, I’ve spoken to my colleague at the Attorney General’s
Office, Minister (Anil) Nandlall, and we have been able to do a draft suicide prevention bill and

hopefully we can get that on the Parliamentary agenda; and if we do this year, then we’ll be able
to pass it and change those old things that have been there that do not really create an enabling
environment in what we need to do to prevent suicide,” he said.
Anthony also mentioned those “particularly problematic” local laws governing mental health.
“One, in the way that they have classified mental health illnesses (and) psychiatric illnesses, …
are totally outdated. Some of the terminologies that are being used are not in keeping with what
we would like to see in a modern mental health architecture, and these things have to be
changed,” Minister Anthony counselled.
Dr. Christina Hoven, Director Global Psychiatric Epidemiology Group and Professor of
Epidemiology and Psychiatry at the Columbia University in the United States of America (USA)
said during her address that criminalisation of suicide has been preventing persons seeking help.
Decriminalisation of suicide is “hope on its way,” said Dr Hoven.