Analysis by
Rickey Singh
IT IS an idea that has taken a pretty long time to be implemented by the governments of our 15-member Caribbean Community (CARICOM). But the decision for implementation finally came earlier this week to coincide with this year’s celebration of the United Nations-proclaimed International Women’s Day–March 8.
Now in its 37th year of existence, and consistent with a welcome new emphasis on social development issues, CARICOM has established an office of “Advocate for Gender Justice” .And it has chosen a very experienced, articulate and committed Caribbean woman–Trinidad-born Dr Rosina Wiltshire–as its first such Advocate.
From my perspective, ‘advocacy’ priority number one could well be securing, as soon as possible, practical initiatives for curbing, across this region, the numbing incidence of domestic violence against women and the frightening climbing rates of the heinous crime of rape, with young teenagers and little school girls among the degraded victims.
The women are among mothers, sisters and teenaged daughters of all nationalities, ethnicities, religion and of varying social status, who continue to be victims–in homes, at work places, schools and social events. The perpetrators are men of all classes, race and nationality who seem to have forgotten the meaning of mutual respect, mutual rights and cherished family values.
Rosina Wiltshire, the former Barbados-based Representative of the United Nations Development Program and UN Resident Coordinator for the Eastern Caribbean, in her first public response as Advocate for Gender Justice, earlier in the week, drew attention to the crime epidemic in which this region is gripped.
They are manifested in homes, schools and across communities. Police crime bulletins and media reports combine to make horrifying reading these days, with differences only in terms of degree of murders, rapes and brutal violence in some CARICOM jurisdictions.
However, for all the competence, plus the goodwill she brings to her work from a distinguished gallery of recipients of “CARICOM’s Triennial Award for Women”, Rosina Wiltshire, and certainly the brave, though less celebrated women in the fields who remain committed to the struggle against violence and in support of gender justice generally, would know that unless there is that political will at the local/national level, no Advocate can really make a difference of significance to the challenges we face, regionally.
Hastening the drafting, enactment and implementation of relevant legislation to deal with domestic violence, discrimination, rape and other dehumanising crimes must be prioritised and given bi-partisan political support, in addition to practical forms of assistance to women’s organisations involved in useful endeavours for socio-economic development.
The collective failure to date by governments to enact legislation that gives legal status to the ‘CARICOM Charter of Civil Society” stands as a good, if painful, reminder why we should not be too glassy-eyed about the welcome appointment of an ‘Advocate for Gender Justice’.
Of relevance is that in every CARICOM member state the general consensus among government agencies, women’s organisations, academe and trade unions point to unqualified condemnation of the cowardly, degrading treatment of  women, as well the need for better recognition of their rights as equal partners in national/regional development.
Good luck, Advocate Rosina!.