Women's Rights are human rights

This week, Flair begins a series on women's rights as described by the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and presented in the booklet; 'CEDAW for Jamaicans'. The booklet was launched on March 12.

In its report on Jamaica, the 36th session of the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) which was held from held August 7-25 2006, expressed deep concern about the "persistence of strong patriarchal attitudes and deep-rooted stereotypes regarding the roles, responsibilities and identities of women and men in all spheres of Jamaican life, which are discriminatory of women."

The persistence of such values, the report said, underpins discrimination against women in many spheres, and condones gender-based violence and promiscuous behaviour by men.

The committee expressed regret that no sustained, systematic action has yet been taken by the Jamaican Government to modify or eliminate stereotypes and negative cultural values and practices that discriminate against women and prevented them from enjoying their human rights.

This is an excerpt from an article published in the Jamaica Gleaner on Monday, March 28, 2008. You can read the entire article at the Jamaica Gleaner website.