Paternity leave, a harmonised code of law for women’s rights and a compulsory training course on women’s rights for all Members of Parliament (MPs) were among the 28 recommendations contained in the report the Women and Gender Equality Commission recently submitted to Speaker of the National Assembly Dr. Barton Scotland.
In a recent interview with Sunday Stabroek, Chairperson of the Commission Indra Chandarpal said that the commission will now work on educating persons about the recommendations and engage stakeholders in an effort to have them implemented.
She pointed out that commission has 14 mandates, one of which is revisiting legislation and making recommendations. Consequently, the commission took a decision to review various legislations and hired attorney Melinda Janki as a consultant to do so. She reviewed all of the conventions as well as the sexual harassment legislation and looked at the Prevention of Discrimination Act. Stakeholder meetings were also held, and recommendations were received.
Out of the 28 recommendations, the one that deals with paternity leave seems to have gained some traction, as it is the issue being discussed by many.
“The paternity leave [issue] became very popular. Everybody wanted to talk about it. It was like a new thing. People say, ‘Oh you are going to make the men lazy’ but we said no, because it is a way to support women. Thinking about women after [giving] birth, having post-traumatic stress and some of them have to have C-section and they don’t have the family network like before, that [the paternity leave] is needed,” Chandarpal told Sunday Stabroek.
She said the commission also felt such leave would allow fathers to bond with their babies.
The commission wants the leave to be inserted into the law and included in contracts of employment. Chandarpal said the commission is also asking that employers provide facilities for child care.
As to the harmonised code of law on women’s rights, Chandarpal said the commission believes it will help women to easily understand their rights under the law.
“That is something we should have, and we feel this should be one book that contains all laws that pertain to women but set up as a code and not as separate laws,” she said.
It was also recommended that the code could be harmonised with international law obligations and with other national laws to ensure there are no gaps in the protection afforded to women and that the code should be written in simple language.
The commission also recommended that the government ensures a report to the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) is submitted regularly and on time.
Interestingly, the 23rd recommendation of the commission calls for the provision of information to parliamentarians on the rights of women and for “a compulsory training course on women’s rights for all MPs before they take up seats.
“We think they ought to be gender conscious, you can have a lot of women, but they are not gender conscious and that is something that needs to be addressed,” Chandarpal said.
Other recommendations include the establishing of a task force with the commission to consider the recommendations of the committee on the elimination of all forms of violence against women and the development of a strategy for putting these into practice.
The repealing of several articles in the Constitution was also recommended. These include, Article 149(6), which allows discrimination against women (and others) in the exercise of their fundamental rights and freedoms, Article 152 (Savings clause), which protects colonial legislation from challenge under the fundamental rights provisions of the Constitution, and lastly, Article 151(6), which allows Guyana to divest itself or limit its obligations under the international covenants incorporated into the Constitution.
Need for sexual harassment law
The commission is also calling for a sexual harassment policy to be instituted at all places of work and educational institutions as it had recommended in 2017.
Chandarpal said it is an initiative the commission started a while ago and while it recognises that there is a Prevention of Discrimination Act of 1997, “We feel that we need to have a separate special law on sexual harassment, not only law but a policy and to educate employers and the public as a whole.”
She shared that the commission has been going into schools and police stations and distributing sexual harassment posters as part of its public education campaign.
“It is a tough situation out there, especially when there are not adequate jobs… when people are faced with sexual harassment, they want to keep it under the rug and they don’t want to come forward,” the commission’s Chair said.
She noted that even though the commission had boxes placed around at post offices, hospitals and the National Library for persons who faced harassment to disclose by anonymously slipping it into the boxes, the response has not been good.
“We are not happy with the response…because you see people are still afraid because they are afraid to even write a letter to say I am sexually harassed. They are also afraid that whoever will receive that letter will not be confidential,” Chandarpal pointed out.
It has been more than two years since the boxes were placed and Chandarpal said while there were some complaints, persons opted not to pursue it. There was one at the University of Guyana and while the things students wrote and put in there “were amazing,” no one wanted to pursue any action.
Other recommendations include improving the access to justice for rural women by having mobile courts in those areas.
Guyana, according to the commission, should also provide ongoing specialised training on the Sexual Offences Act and the Domestic Violence Act for judges, magistrates, police officers, and others involved in the criminal justice system.
It also recommended an analysis be conducted in the employment sector to look at what jobs women are in, what they are paid compared to men, whether they are in low-paying jobs and whether these are low-paying jobs because they are done by women.
A ban in all public arenas of music which violates the dignity of women was recommended, along with the development of a code of conduct for advertisers to ensure respect for the dignity of women. According to the recommendations, a code should also be developed for the media to provide training for journalists to ensure they show respect for the dignity of women.
