Latest update February 17th, 2025 1:24 PM
Mar 11, 2016 News
Guyana is poised to achieve gender equality and ensure that all women and girls are empowered. This
assertion was made by President David Granger earlier this week on the occasion of International Women’s Day.
But according to him, Guyana’s ability to realise the ambitious goal of gender parity, “depends on our ability to dismantle the structures which oppress and marginalise women today. And these structures include a societal culture that is biased against women. The task for us is to begin to remove structural impediments, impediments to greater equality”.
President Granger recalled that at a Global Leaders meeting on Gender Equality and Woman Empowerment, which was held at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015 in New York, the strides that Guyana has thus far made were highlighted. And Guyana, according to him, has already achieved internationally agreed upon goals of gender equality and empowerment.
Speaking on behalf of Guyana at the meeting in September, President Granger reaffirmed Guyana’s commitment to build a country in which women and girls can expect to live in safety, to be protected from abuse such as trafficking in persons, domestic violence and workplace hazards. And according to Granger, “I intend to honour that commitment.”
And already, he noted, constitutional, conventional and regulatory frameworks to attain the desired goals are well established.
“The Constitution of our country is enshrined in those rights and I quote from our Constitution ‘women’s participation in various management and decision-making processes, whether private, public or state, shall be in large facilitated by law for that purpose or otherwise’,” said the President. He continued by noting that the Constitution also prescribes that “‘every woman is entitled to equal rights and status with men in all spheres of political, economical and social life.’”
The Constitution, the President highlighted, also speaks to the fact that “all forms of discrimination against women on the basis of gender or sex are illegal. Every woman is entitled to equal access with men to academics, vocational and professional training, to equal opportunities in employment with remuneration and promotion in social, political and cultural activities.”
The President, moreover, insisted that in Guyana the legislative architecture for gender equality is intact. He further shared his conviction that what obtains today in Guyana can easily be deemed nothing short of revolutionary when compared with what existed before.
“We all know the plethora of laws which have been passed…Guyana is also signatory to a number of international Conventions and Declarations which promote women equality,” said the President as he considered that “what we need now is the operationalising of laws and conventions.”
But even as he asserted that Guyana can be proud of its record of putting measures in place to promote and protect the rights of women and enabling equality, he added that there is still a far way to go.
“The legal architecture cannot be faulted. Perhaps we can make some changes here and there but what we need, in addition, is an attempt on our part as legislators, as Members of Cabinet and government, as citizens and members of non-governmental organisations, to put into practice what we have passed into law,” the Head of State stressed.
He is therefore of the firm view that “we must move into the realm of performance and tackle the task of breaking down barriers which prevent women from being treated as equal to men. What is not intact is the attitudinal and behavioural approach to equality”.
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