Op-ed: Constitutional change necessary for Bahamas to fulfill obligations under CEDAW

The Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), commonly known as women’s bill of rights, was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1979. The Bahamas ratified the Convention in 1993 and, 25 years later, we still do not have a national understanding of it and its implications. No administration has seen fit to deliver public education on this or any other UN instrument while representatives have made commitments on the nation’s behalf. This has led to scepticism about tools intended to assist us in accessing and promoting our own human rights. It can feel as though the government is making decisions and commitments in secrecy, deliberately leaving us out. When issues are raised by international bodies about our failure to meet the standards we agreed to, acronyms like CEDAW are read as threatening because they are not understood. This has been a large component of my advocacy this week as the CEDAW Committee review The Bahamas through study and questioning of its report, shadow reports by non-government organisations, oral statements and questions to the delegation lead by the Minister of Social Services and Community Development Frankie Campbell. The referendum of 2016 is the perfect example of our resistance to that which we do not understood, and all that appears mysterious and is interpreted as top-down. I, of course, am not suggesting it was the only issue that led to the referendum results, but acknowledge the part it played.
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