Caribbean Women disturbed that CARICOM Govts undermining Beijing Declaration commitments

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 20^th 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 23^rd 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!”

 7 March 2015

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