The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) on Monday expressed concerns that greenhouse gas emissions from the extraction of oil and gas could negatively impact women through environmental degradation.
As part of concluding observations on the ninth periodic report for Guyana, published on CEDAW’s website, the committee advised that Guyana review its climate change and energy policies, specifically its policies on the extraction of oil and gas.
The country is also urged to develop a “disaster risk reduction strategy that takes into account the negative impacts of climate change on gender equality [as wells as] on the lives of women and their families, especially those living in areas below sea level.”
While the reports viewed as positive the integration of gender equality as one of the cross-cutting principles in Guyana’s Green State Development Strategy it expressed concern that continuing and expanding extraction of oil and gas could undermine its obligations to women’s empowerment and gender equality.
They argued that environmental degradation resulting from greenhouse gas emission and potential natural disasters disproportionately impact women, in particular in situations of poverty and therefore recommend that special considerations be put in place.
On July 12 a high level delegation headed by Minister of Social Protection Amna Ally and including representatives of the Ministry of Social Protection, the Ministry of Public Health, the National Commission of UNESCO, as well as of the Permanent Mission of Guyana to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva appeared before CEDAW to respond to queries on Guyana’s implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.
The team’s presentation was reviewed and in 58 recommendations presented.
The recommendations on Oil and Gas were welcomed by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) which noted that it adds to the growing consensus among human rights experts that States can no longer ignore the mounting human rights impacts of climate change and of the fossil fuels most responsible for the climate crisis.
Senior Attorney at CIEL Sébastien Duyck, in a press statement argued that “in a world confronting the urgent realities of the climate crisis, opening new frontiers for oil and gas is fundamentally incompatible with protecting human rights.”
“Fossil fuel extraction unavoidably results in further emissions of greenhouse gases, thereby harming the rights of communities and peoples that States have legally pledged to protect,” he stressed.
Also quoted is attorney-at-law and international lawyer Melinda Janki, who has charged that the proposed oil production violates both international law and national law including constitutional rights to a healthy environment and inter-generational equity,”
“Lawbreaking plus climate change, acid oceans, and the destruction of marine life can only harm Guyana, not benefit its citizens” Janki stressed.
