The Tribune

By Dr IAN BETHEL

WHEN governments agree to become a part of a group they usually sign a piece of paper confirming their intent to be a part of that group. They take that signature and the piece of paper to be legally binding; they are bound by their word to follow the principles of what they have signed. Such is the case with CEDAW (Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women) which the government of the Bahamas signed onto in 1993, agreeing that when those persons who signed returned to the country, they would ensure that all the commitments the agreement called for would be included in Bahamian law. The government, as a state party agreed to:

Article 2

“. . . condemn discrimination against women in all its forms, agree to pursue by all appropriate means and without delay a policy of eliminating discrimination against women .”

The language above is clear: discrimination must be condemned. It is the government’s responsibility to condemn said discrimination. They, as the heads of states must work to get rid of all types of statements that claim that women are less than men.

Have the government and its ministers done this? Have they condemned all discrimination against women? Have they pursued all means of eliminating discrimination against women?

Or have they worked behind the scenes to encourage discrimination against women through their words and their deeds?

Have they joked about, argued that, and upheld the idea that women need not have the same rights as men?

In the old days, people would say a gentleman’s word was his bond. These days it is less easy to find people who are good to their word. People’s word means less than it should. It means that they have no honour, as sticking to one’s word once one had shaken on it, was a man’s honour. Women, too, were of honour or ill-repute. Today, it seems that people are all too happy to be scallywags. They do not care about breaking the law or their commitment to upholding the law.

Is it more complicated than that?

The Bahamian government signed on to CEDAW, legally binding the country when they did so, and agreed that they would uphold the commitments under the Convention.

The government has not kept to the promise of ensuring that women have equal access to the protection under the law as men do. Article I of CEDAW is very clear. It states:

“For the purposes of the present Convention, the term ‘discrimination against women’ shall mean any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field.”

Rather than write laws to give women equal rights to men, the government has argued that women do not need to have the same rights as men. They do not need to be able to pass on their citizenship to their children the same way men do. They do not need to be paid the same nor to be able to live with their husbands in the same way, should they choose to marry non-Bahamians. In fact, members of government have said that women should leave the country should they choose to marry a non-Bahamian man. Is that not creating a distinction between them and their male counterparts?

Bahamian women are rarely given the same benefits as men in their professional lives. It does not matter how many women are employed in a place over how many men, men receive preferential treatment in the work place as well as in the legal sphere. Unmarried women and married women are not afforded the same rights. Yet still, the government signed the Convention agreeing to change its domestic laws so that women would be full citizens and enjoy all the rights that entitled them to. Instead, governments have hidden behind the idea that men are the head of women, which then allows them, as males who love women, to beat them because they are less than men.

How do we get people to understand that the country as a whole has signed a commitment to remove all forms of discrimination against women and as such, we are bound by our word and the law to do so?

How do we as a people tell the government to stop breaking its legal obligations that it chose to make? Let us become an equitable society where all citizens are treated with respect and guaranteed rights so they do not have to fear exploitation nor exclusion.