HEAD OF United Nations Women Caribbean, Christine Arab, has voiced concern about the high level of violence against women in Barbados.
She said whether it was “intimate partner violence” or it took another form, it was “unacceptably high”.
However, she pointed out that Barbados was not in a minority because the problem was “a global phenomenon”.
She said that in Barbados there needed to be “a comprehensive response” to the problem.
She made the comments during a media briefing the Bureau of Gender Affairs gave at its Cave Hill campus complex office earlier this week on progress on compilation of the national report on Elimination Of All Forms Of Discrimination Against Women for submission to a special UN committee.
Head of the bureau, Patricia Hackett-Codrington, said Barbados should be reporting to the UN every four years on the progress made on 16 articles in the Convention For The Elimination Of All Forms Of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) but had missed a number of years.
The report being submitted this year covers the period 2003-2012.
The CEDAW, which was adopted in 1979 by the United Nations General Assembly, is considered an international bill of rights for women.
It defines what constitutes discrimination against women and serves as a call to action for its signatory nations, which include Barbados.
Hackett-Codrington and consultant on the project, Margaret Gill, said the biggest challenge was that a lot of the data needed for the Barbados report was not broken down in terms of gender.
The bureau is holding a town hall meeting at the Queen’s Park Steel Shed from 7.30 p.m. tomorrow to discuss the drafted report.
The public is being asked to offer views with the aim of improving the draft. Representatives from trade unions; school-based organisations, such as PTAs; and women’s leagues of political parties with special interest in themes to be discussed are especially urged to attend.
These topics include wages and how they are affected by gender, child abuse among girls, women’s roles in political decision-making and intimate partner violence. (TY)
