Prevention of gender discrimination moves slowly

| 26/08/2009

(CNS):  Although the senior policy advisor for gender affairs, Tammy Ebanks-Bishop, says work to develop a gender training programme, public education tools and formulate policies for the Cayman Islands has been steadily progressing, the Cayman Islands has still not signed the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). And new legislation, promised almost a year ago, to protect women has not yet been put in place, though the minister with responsibility has stated she intends to bring the legislation before the end of 2009.

Cayman has been discussing the adoption of the CEDAW, described as a bill of rights for women, for many years. The convention was established by the United Nations in 1979 and has been adopted by 185 countries around the world. It defines what constitutes discrimination against women and sets up an agenda for national action to end such discrimination. In order to sign the convention, Cayman will need to examine and adopt all its legislation closely to ensure it no longer discriminates against women in all walks of life.

Minister responsible for Gender Affairs, Juliana O’Connor-Connolly, has stated that the ministry intends to bring the draft Prevention of Gender Discrimination Bill (2009) to the Legislative Assembly before the close of the year. This, she said, would enable CEDAW to be extended to the Cayman Islands.

O’Connor-Connolly also said that the ministry intends to move forward in the area of gender affairs by identifying three to four priority areas wherein specific gender training would be provided. “We will organise public education efforts and provide generalised gender awareness training and analysis of the policies, operations and programmes within our ministry,” she added.  

“We expect thatcontinued development of gender affairs for the Cayman Islands will lead to the establishment of a model Office of Gender Affairs, once the financial and human resources become available.”

Meanwhile, Ebanks-Bishop has been involved in an exchange in Trinidad and Tobago to view how that country is pursuing its gender affairs programme. The trip was entirely funded by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) sub-regional office for the Caribbean.  

Following Cabinet’s 2004 acceptance of a National Policy on Gender Equity and Equality, Ebanks-Bishop was appointed in September 2008 to provide analysis that would enhance gender mainstreaming efforts in policies and programmes. In addition, she was to review regional models and advise government on establishing a local Gender Affairs Office.

“This exchange gave me an opportunity to learn from a Caribbean country that the World Economic Forum rates among the top 20 countries world-wide for narrowing the gender gap.  The visit was most beneficial as I was able to interact with staff at all levels and learn from their experiences in gender mainstreaming at the programming and policy level,” explained Ebanks-Bishop.    

Posted in Trinidad and Tobago’s Gender Affairs Division, she said she was able to observe its day-to-day operations. "I was able to receive policy documents and training templates and visit community-based programmes geared at job-creation in non-traditional careers for women, gender training, and support for victims of domestic violence ,” she added.

Category: Local News

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  1. Lisa says:

     

    Is;nt the Cayman Islands also

    Is;nt the Cayman Islands also a third world country. The whole reason why we men have to take third world women is because the Cayman women no longer have any interest in us, They are too busy complaining about gender discrimination and planning for the next divorce.

    WHO CARES….We Caymanian women are just sick and tired of all your lies and cheating ways, honey, it has nothing to do with discrimination or gender.    So if all our Caymanian men want to go to Hounduras and other Countries feel free it’s on us!   We would even buy your tickets for you darling.  But remember when you want to try and come back home pls dont bring us your diseases.  YOUR SUITCASES WILL BE WELL PACKED

    PS: I heard Public Health is giving out free protection grab a load you may all need it

    • Anonymous says:

      I need tickets for the next Cuba flight.

      Put your money where your mouth is and let me have your phone number so that I can pick up my ticket and suitcase full of protection.

      You would just love the grin on my face.

      By the way, can I have a ticket for my travelling Buddy as well?

    • Anonymous says:

      Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah.

      Thank God we men do have another Port to hide out from our storms.

      Boy those third world gals are sweet. They even meet us at the Airport and see of off when we leave. Of course they also check our pockets to make sure we dont carry any money back to Cayman with us.

      Talk about an incentive to come back to work.

       

  2. Anonymous says:
    As usual, the comments have become completely irrelevant, thus diminishing the intent of the originalarticle.  Please people, if you don’t have anything intelligent to contribute to the content of this article,  then spew your garbage elsewhere.  Don’t turn this into a male vs. female debate, as the gender issues this proposed department is trying to address crosses over both sexes.  Do you really think that gender issues are only about women?  Gender issues cross a multitude of lines and effects everyone, both male and female.  Letting the content of this article get lost in a sea of foolishness such as third world countries, marrying women from third world countries, not being able to look up telephone numbers, etc… is a disservice.   
  3. She Man says:

    Based on the lack of comment, can we now finally admit that gender discrimination is in fact non-existent and all move on with our lives?

     

    • Anonymous says:

      No. 

    • Anonymous says:

      And shut down the department dealing with this in order to save some money too. What a waste of money to be spending on a non-existent problem.

      The real gender discriminators here are those women who marry men for what they have only to divorce and take it all shortly after.

      • Anonymous1 says:

        this is the biggest gender discrimination country in the world.  Please… like you men have anything.  When you marry women from third world countries what do you expect?  They boost you up making you think that you all that and boom…despite warnings to the contrary.

        Women deserve everything after slaving for so many years.  the men here can’t even find a telephone number in the phone book.

        • Anonymous says:

          Is;nt the Cayman Islands also a third world country.

          If you dont think we are third world, maybe you should read some of the stories coming out on CNS now.

          The whole reason why we men have to take third world women is because the Cayman women no longer have any interest in us, They are too busy complaining about gender discrimination and planning for the next divorce.

          I have been a widower for over 2 years now and not a single Caymanian woman has shown any interest in me. So, I have to look for a third world woman if my life is to go on.

          • Anonymous says:

            actually you have to look for no woman if your life is to go on.  at any rate, irrelevant…  i’m sorry that you’ve been a widower for over two years, but do you wonder why no single caymanian woman has shown any interest in you?  is it your personality, your outlook on life, the way you look, the way you carry yourself???  don’t blame the messenger…

        • Anonymous says:

          Just visit the Airport on a friday and see how many of our men are headed off to Cuba and Honduras, then ask yourself, Why is this happening.

        • Anonymous says:

          Ummm…. I think Saudia Arabia is worse, just to name one!