Minister aims to fight remaining discrimination
(CNS): A new consultation exercise to gather more information about the situation in the Cayman Islands for women and girls has begun. The ministry with responsibility for gender affairs has published a report based on a gender conference held earlier this year and issued a questionnaire to help towards the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). The request to the UK to extend the treaty protecting the rights of women was made some time ago and the current gender affairs minister, Tara Rivers, is now anticipating a favourable response and as a result Cayman will need to address remaining issues of discrimination.
All Cayman Islands residents are invited to participate in this broad public consultation exercise and submit written comments on the situation of girls and women by Monday, 30 June and the ministry will also host an event in Cayman Brac to address the special circumstances of women and girls living in the Sister Islands.
Following what was described by the ministry as an “overwhelmingly positive response to the National Conference on Women”, Rivers, who has responsibility for gender affairs in her education and employment ministry, explained that work was now going on towards the adoption locally of CEDAW. This data gathered during the consultation will be used to inform the local implementation plan for this treaty by identifying priority issues and strategies to address discrimination in local legislation, policies and practices.
“The ministry will continue to build on the momentum that has been created and seek to maintain and increase the level of collaboration as we move forward, using this knowledge and inspiration to help shape the national agenda and to improve the lives of girls and women and, in turn, society as a whole,” Rivers said.
The National Conference on Women report and the public consultation questionnaire are posted below. The documents are also available from the Government Administration Building.
Category: Politics
The event this ministry hosted was advertised in the newspaper and was free to anyone interested in attending. I attended. The range of attendees was astounding. Women of all ages and all walks of life. And men too. All discussing issues, sharing experiences and offering solutions. This is what a democratic society does. Discuss issues and devise solutions
150 people divided into 14+ groups breaking issues down and all concluding with similar solutions means the issues are visible, the answers are there, the solutions are there. It's now just a matter of getting government to get behind what needs to be done.
Updating antiquated labour laws, immigration laws, family planning and marriage law all of which will force the antiquated practices to be reduced and should reduce the discrimination practices that currently the laws let people and businesses get with.
Some solutions were a matter of adjusting personal behavior changes by men and women of these islands (attitude adjustments and education on domestic violence, safe sex, roles within family units etc)
This event was direct and focused, with some pretty clear action points. We are now reliant on Tara and her task force to drive this need for change.
Thankfully Cayman does not have the discriminatory issues like some Middle East countries but we do have some pretty daft laws that need modernizing so that see both women and men are treated fairly regardless of their gender, sexual orientation, religion, place of birth etc.
Does all forms of discrimination against women include discrimination against lesbians? Or does "all forms" just mean the ones that won't lose Tara votes?
This is needed, thank you Hon. Minister.
Oh dear, will sexual discrimination and harrassement no longer be compulsory?? Sad day..
I'm so glad to see this issue being recognized and addressed. As we all know, if it's not enforced by law, employers here will discriminate against women with the excuse that they are just saving the company money because the woman 'accepted' the lesser pay….treat us fairly people! It's never not a good time to eliminate discrimination.
Here we go with another gender discrimination consultation…
There is a question that I have always wondered about – maybe they could shed some light on that question – which is:
'Why do men have nipples?'
God foresaw that it would come to pass that many men would indeed wish to and would become women.
Imagine a transexual with no nips?! That's no fun at all is it?!
Stop believing that some god created Adam to "his !" image and created Eve from a rib as a servant to Adam.
This story (like in most religions) is THE foundation for inequality of men and women.
Forbidding the women insulting jesus freaks on 103.1 fm from transmitting their garbage might also help.
That's a pretty spiteful comment.
More anti-Christian garbage. That has nothing to do with anything. What you call "inequality" between the sexes is found in most societies, primitive and modern, whether or not they have a Judaeo-Christian belief system, e.g. China. The truth is that perceived inqualities has more to do with market forces.
We need jobs now but Tara really wasting time with this gimme a break