SVG’s record on women’s rights to face scrutiny by UN Committee

The record of St Vincent and the Grenadines on women’s rights will be examined by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) on Monday, 20 July in meetings that will be webcast live.{{more}}

St Vincent and the Grenadines is one of the 189 States parties to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and so is required to submit regular reports to the Committee of 23 independent experts on how it is implementing the Convention.

The Committee will engage in a dialogue with a delegation from the Government of St Vincent and the Grenadines on questions relating to the promotion and protection of women’s rights in the country, and will also hear from NGO representatives. The live webcast can be viewed at http://www.treatybodywebcast.org/ between 4 a.m. and 1 p.m. SVG time.

Among the possible issues to be discussed are: steps to criminalize domestic violence and to broaden its definition to comprise acts of sexual and psychological violence; steps to widen definition of rape to include any non-consensual sexual acts; measures to prevent and combat trafficking and forced prostitution; regional cooperation to tackle trafficking in women and children; conditions under which legal abortion is available; adverse situation affecting banana industry and impact on rural women; steps to guarantee the protection of women’s rights in de facto unions (unions other than marriage).

The concluding observations on St Vincent and the Grenadines and the other States being reviewed – Senegal, Spain, The Gambia, Viet Nam, Bolivia, Croatia and Namibia – will be published on 27 July.