Barbados Maintains Global Stance On Discrimination Against Women

Barbados continues to serve with distinction on the United Nations (UN) Committee of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), in the person of Professor Emerita, the Most Honourable Eudine Barriteau.

Professor Barriteau was elected to the Committee in June 2024 to serve a four-year term from 2025–2028. She is one of two Caribbean scholars on the Committee, joining Trinidad and Tobago’s Dr. Rhoda Reddock.

At a ceremony held on February 19, at the United Nations Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, diplomats, officials of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, gender and women’s rights advocates and members of the Committee of CEDAW gathered to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the Convention.

Barbados’ Permanent Representative to the United Nations, World Trade Organization and other International Organizations in Geneva, Matthew Wilson, highlighted Barbados’ commitment to women’s economic empowerment and to human rights. 

He highlighted the recent appointment of a Human Rights Commissioner as “a testament to our commitment to the human rights system at the United Nations”.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, noted: “Although substantial progress has been achieved on women’s rights with women’s representation in national parliaments more than doubled in the past 30 years and the global gap in educational attainment all but closed, … we now face a growing global backlash against gender equality, indeed, against equality of all kinds.”

Even though 189 states’ parties have undertaken legally binding obligations to guarantee equal rights to women and girls, at the 45th anniversary celebration many observed and lamented that there was an unprecedented financial and liquidity crisis at the United Nations that risk running counter to these obligations.

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women is mandated under Article 17 of the CEDAW Convention to monitor how states’ parties implement the Convention.

For over four decades, the Convention has served as a comprehensive normative framework guiding legislative, policy and institutional reforms aimed at achieving substantive equality between women and men. 

Barbados ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women in 1980, committing to eliminate gender-based discrimination through legislative, policy, and social measures.  (PR/GIS)

CAPTION: From left to right – Trinidad and Tobago Head of Mission, Allison St. Brice; Professor Eudine Barrateau; Dr. Rhoda Reddock; First Secretary, Mission of Trinidad and Tobago, Nickesha Smith; and Ambassador Matthew Wilson, at a recent ceremony to commemorate the 45th anniversary of CEDAW