WUNRN
STATEMENT OF CARIBBEAN WOMEN, WOMEN’S
ORGANIZATIONS AND OTHER CARIBBEAN CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATION ON THE OCCASION OF
THE COMMISSION ON THE STATUS WOMEN (CSW)
59, BEIJING + 20
We, women of the Caribbean
Regional Network of Organizations and our allies, form part of a global
movement dedicated to ensuring that our Governments and other actors,
respect, protect and guarantee the full enjoyment of the human rights of all women
and girls. On the eve of the 20th anniversary of the
commitments made in the Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action, we are
dismayed and disturbed that Governments of the Caribbean Community [CARICOM]
are undermining the commitments in the BPfA, in the context of the current
negotiations among UN member states, to agree a Political Declaration.
Unbelievably, this Political Declaration, so far, is a poor facsimile of the
existing commitments made in Beijing in 1995, depicts a lack of ambition,
unbecoming of CARICOM, as well as threatening a major step backward in
the cause of the equality of women and girls.
As Caribbean women, we see this as a monumental betrayal by CARICOM, who
in Beijing, 1995, played a pivotal and progressive role in the development and
agreements made, as outlined in the BPfA. We believe this betrayal is
responsible in large part for the unequal, uneven, insecure, unhealthy and unfair
space
for women, our region has become. It is with great alarm, for our further
insecurity, that we view this continuing backward slide and attempts to escape
once again the role that all peoples expect from their governments.
We join all equality seeking women’s and other organizations, devoted to
social justice and human rights and demand that CARICOM Governments live
up to their commitments and responsibility, and be accountable to us by working
to deliver a Political Declaration that:
Expresses unequivocal commitment towards fully
realizing: gender equality; the human rights; and empowerment of women and
girls, which is a cross cutting theme emphasized throughout the Beijing
Declaration and the Platform For Action;
Commits to accelerated implementation of the Beijing
Declaration and the Platform for Action, along with the outcomes of the 23rd
United Nations General Assembly Special Session, the Beijing+10 and+15
political declarations, the agreed conclusions and resolutions of the
Commission on the Status of Women, as well as regional, and national-level
declarations on gender equality and the human rights of women and girls;
Commits to universal ratification and
implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women and regional-level treaties on the human rights of
women and girls and gender equality. We call on CARICOM Governments to
show leadership and ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention “in order
to facilitate the full enjoyment of the rights guaranteed under the
Convention”, and to -“fully utilize the Beijing Declaration and
Platform for Action, which reinforce the provisions of the Convention;
Recognizes and Welcomes unequivocally, the critical
role women’s and feminist organizations and women human rights defenders have
played in pushing for gender equality, the human rights and empowerment of
women and girls AND commits to create an enabling
environment and resources to allow women’s organizations, feminist
organizations and women human rights defenders to be able to do their work free
from violence.
Recognizes and commits to address the emerging
challenges that are setting back our fight for equality and the realization of
the human rights of all women and girls , such as increasing regional and
global inequality, VAW and girls, increasing fundamentalisms, and climate
change among others, AND ensures real accountability for governments including
detailed measures to reform and strengthen public institutions to address the
structural causes of gender inequality;
Affirms the strong linkages between Beijing, the
Post-2015 Sustainable Development Goal, realizing gender equality,
empowerment and the human rights of women and girls will be critical for the
success of the post-2015 sustainable development agenda and must be a “Stand
Alone Goal”;
Despite the fact that we Caribbean women in
particular have experienced, inter alia, increasing levels
of VAW and Girls; poor political representation and participation
in power and decision-making, continued exclusion and discrimination in
particular of indigenous women, LBT women, women with disabilities, older
women, young women ; rural women, household workers, we have recently
re-committed to working with our governments through the “Caribbean
Joint Statement on Gender Equality and the Post 2015 and SIDS
Agenda” agreed in Barbados, 2013.
We
admonish and entreat CARICOM Governments to recall that under all the Human
Rights treaties you have signed, you have a legal duty to ensure women’s
enjoyment of our human rights on a basis of equality with men. Women and girls
are not disposables! Promises made must be promises kept!
You
have already agreed in the Beijing Declaration, “Women’s Rights are Human
Rights!”
For further information contact members of the Caribbean Regional
Network at:
Joan Grant Cummings, Caribbean
DAWN: cbn.dawn@gmail.com
or (876)342-6940;
Delores Robinson at GROOTS
Trinidad & Tobago: grootstt2@gmail.com
Louise Lana Finikin, SISTREN
Collective/GROOTS Jamaica : finikinturnbull@gmail.com