A wide cross section of Saint Lucia’s Law Enforcement and Social Support Agencies recently discussed Saint Lucia’s compliance with the United Nations Human Rights Convention.

    The forum was hosted by the Department of Education, Innovation and Gender Relations in collaboration with the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights in Barbados. The focus was the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

    In 1982, Saint Lucia ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination of Women which takes an important place in bringing the female half of humanity into the focus of human rights concerns.   The implementation of the Convention is monitored by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). At least every four years, countries that have signed unto the convention are expected to submit a national report to the Committee, indicating the measures they have adopted to give effect to the provisions of the Convention. A workshop was held in preparation for these reports and was facilitated by the Human Rights Officer with the United Nations, Michelle Brathwaite. “Every single Caribbean country has ratified a number of human rights treaties and there are a certain number of obligations and responsibilities that come with ratifying a treaty. Small island developing states have challenges when it comes to meeting those obligations. Part of my role is to help governments meet those challenges. Over the course of three days I will be working with the Department of Gender Relations to pull together information for your CEDAW report. What is most important is the information from you which is critical,” Braithwaite says.

    Acting Director of the Department of Gender Relations, Janey Joseph, says Saint Lucia submitted its 1st-6th reports in 2005 and is in the process of submitting its 7th-9th reports.  “We are hoping that by the end of workshop you would have a greater appreciation for the human rights component of what you do; how what you do contributes to the commitments that Saint Lucia has made and how you are supposed to be generating information, collecting data that contribute to the reports. Hopefully you will also get an understanding and appreciation of the value that the preparation of those reports add to the work that we do and more so to the beneficiaries to the work that we do. At the end of the day, if the reports can give us to necessary feedback that would allow us to implement programs and projects that would better the lives of the people that we serve then we would have served the purpose of completing these reports,” Joseph unveils.

    During its annual session, the Committee members discuss these reports with the Government representatives and explore with them areas for further action by the specific country. The Committee also makes general recommendations on matters concerning the elimination of discrimination against women.