Senate President pushes for stronger UN mechanisms to combat violence against women and girls
President of the Senate, the Hon. Alincia Williams Grant has expressed grave concern about the effectiveness of CEDAW, the United Nations convention that requires signatory countries to take decisive steps in promoting gender equality and address meaningfully the issue of violence against women and girls.
Senator Williams Grant, who led a national delegation to the 69th session of the Commission on the Status of Women at the UN in New York, was a featured speaker at one of the conference’s high level side events on Friday. The packed United Nations conference room engaged the panelists on the matter on the theme of the discussions, ‘Towards a new optional protocol to CEDAW dedicated to end violence against Women and Girls.’
The new protocol to CEDAW would create additional mechanisms and procedures by which countries can escalate their complaints about violations against women and girls in instances where their national courts are proving ineffective.
Pointing to alarming global figures that show 1 in 3 women have been victims of some form of violence in their lifetime, Senator Williams Grant says the new optional protocol should be an urgent priority.
“The current optional protocol in place has had the buy in of many member states, which is noteworthy, as this is indicative of global political will to address the issue of violence against women and girls,” she stated.
But she laments that implementation has been an issue as the number of complaints reaching the CEDAW committee do not exactly correlate to the scale of the global scourge of violence against women.
“It would appear that civil society organisations and NGOs have not been as active as anticipated, in relation to utilizing the optional protocol to report flagrant violations of women and girls’ human rights in relation to facing violence, and systemic inequities, so that they could be highlighted and addressed by the committee, and subsequently, the respective governments,” Senator Williams Grant revealed.
“It is imperative that we join forces and speak with one voice, as political actors, policy makers, diplomats, governments, gender equality practitioners, international development agencies and civil society, to call for the creation of a new optional protocol that is designed to truly function as a dependable mechanism for reporting instances where the principles of CEDAW and similar conventions are being ignored or disregarded, and more so, to bring light to instances where women and girls and vulnerable groups are being subjected to violence, discrimination and abuse,” she stressed.
Incidentally, Senator Williams Grant’s exhortation on Friday came mere hours before the tragic discovery of 9 year old murder victim Chantel Crump, after being kidnapped close to her home only on Wednesday. While expressing her sadness and sympathy with the family, she noted the national cry for justice resonates with the principles of CEDAW as nations need to work together in establishing the deterrents from such tragic and fatal incidents.
“It takes a village, not only to raise our children, but to protect our women and girls from all incidents of violence,” she commented.
Accompanying Senator Williams Grant to the side event were the other members of her delegation, Executive Director of the Directorate of Gender Affairs, Jamie Saunders and Programme Officer, T’Chell Looby-Antonio as well as First Secretary at the Antigua and Barbuda Mission Asha Challenger.
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Madam me President what, according to you, is gender based violence?
Our society and this little island will.never change for as long as we breed such hypocrisy.
I have heard many different forms of gender based violence spoken about. I have herald of physical and verbal.
However the call for actions against any form of violence is only at times such as these, when a woman is physically dehumanized by a male partner or when someone associated to the opposition party says something.
Oh how I would love to see consistency in your fight against gender based violence!!!!
Is name shaming, body shaming or verbal abuse a form of gender based violence or is it dependent on the time, place or person using the unpleasant language?
Such a practice is pregnant in our oarliament.anf on a particular radio station. It apparently evades the ears of the Eo3men of Labour. It shouldn’t.
Even you Madamme Speaker, remained silent when you were told that your ego is bigger than your competence. Was that a form of violence against a woman? I guess not.have the attacks in Dotsie Isaac been considered violence against a woman? No. Because it was done by someone untouchable. If you dared to speak out you would lose your benefits.
Evil thrives when good MEN/WOMEN remain silent. I urge you to commit to speaking out against ALL forms of gender based violence irrespective of the sphere from whence it comes. It is better to walk alone than to walk with the crowd that is going to walk over the precipice.
This senate president is conflating UN issues with our situation in antigua and especially Barbuda, does the Senate president know that if a Barbuda 9 year old girl go to swim I white people only designated beaches by Gaston and PLH that arm police and military with Uzi machine guns will accost that baby girl to remove her from swimming in white section of beaches in Barbuda? Gaston arm police been housed and fed by PLH is waiting with baited breath to hurt a 9 year old or elderly barbudans who dear to picnic on there ancestral beaches.
This senate president is conflating UN issues with our situation in antigua and especially Barbuda, does the Senate president know that if a Barbuda 9 year old girl go to swim in white people only designated beaches by Gaston and PLH that arm police and military with Uzi machine guns will accost that baby girl to remove her from swimming in white section of beaches in Barbuda? Gaston arm police been housed and fed by PLH is waiting with baited breath to hurt a 9 year old or elderly barbudans who dear to picnic on there ancestral beaches.