Peter Richards
PORT OF SPAIN, Mar 9 2006 (IPS) – Ever since Prime Minister Patrick Manning all but scuttled a draft national gender policy nearly six months ago, a debate has been raging here as to whether such a plan is necessary for the future socio-economic development of Trinidad and Tobago.
We want a gender policy now, thundered Hazel Brown, president of the Network of Non-Governmental Organisations, during a rally on Wednesday marking International Women s Day.
She has called on all people of conscience to join in getting the Manning administration to implement that gender policy, which endorses our right to gender equity and social justice .
The gender issue relates directly to the concerns of women and men which we experience every day employment, education, health, law reform and so on. We must not let ourselves be trapped in the small and narrow agendas, she added.
The 139-page draft policy was prepared by the Centre for Gender and Development Studies at the St. Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI) at the request of the Ministry of Community Development and Gender Affairs. It says the overall goal of this policy is to promote gender equity, equality, social justice and sustainable human development in Trinidad and Tobago .
The policy is intended to help Trinidad and Tobago meet its obligations under international commitments such as the Beijing Platform for Action and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which it ratified in 1990.
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However, the draft policy has met with criticism, with the public divided over whether or not the document promotes the legalisation of abortion and opens the door to same-sex marriages, among other concerns. It also deals with preventing discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS, male reproductive health, allowing fathers into birthing rooms in the nation s hospitals and paternity leave.
But as he delivered the country s national budget in October last year, Manning made it clear that the draft policy would not be supported by his administration.
He said while the government recognises the need to develop a gender policy, the draft gender policy document currently being circulated was not issued by the government and does not reflect government policy .
In fact, there are certain recommendations in the document to which the government does not and will not subscribe. The government is therefore requesting that the document, which purports to be official government policy, be withdrawn from circulation, he told legislators.
But on Wednesday, Gender Affairs Minister Joan Yuille Williams said the government was still examining the document.
We are working on the gender policy. It is very active. I am firm supporter of it, she told the rally, insisting that the prime minister was simply expressing views on certain parts of the draft that he did not like .
We have worked on the gender policy and it is still due for consideration, she told journalists afterwards.
The Roman Catholic Church here and its associate organisations have been leading the opposition to the adoption of the draft document in its present form, staging prayer and fast sessions.
The Emmanuel Community, a church group, said the document attempts to undermine the fabric of our society .
Under reproductive rights, the draft says that, Abortion is legally available only to preserve the physical and/or mental health of the mother and requires the corroboration by two medical practitioners. The procurement of a miscarriage is prohibited under the Offences Against the Person Act.
It also urges a review of all issues relating to the termination of pregnancy .
Fr. George Pritchett, head of the Emmanuel Community, argues that supporters of this aspect of the policy will first seek to have abortion legalised in cases of rape and incest, and then slowly extend the range of legitimate reasons until it was completely legal.
Similar concerns have been raised by Lawyers for Jesus, which has petitioned the government to withdraw the document and begin a new series of discussions. In a newspaper advertisement, Lawyers for Jesus thanked Manning for his advocacy of a moral stand in declaring the draft does not represent his government s position.
But another group, Advocates for Safe Parenthood Improving Reproductive Equity (ASPIRE), which has campaigned against unsafe abortions in the country, dismisses these arguments.
Attorney Lynette Seebaran-Suite, a member of the group, told a seminar to commemorate the International Day to Eliminate Violence Against Women last November that the government had given in to political pressure.
She said that Manning had disassociated himself from the draft, and since We have a political culture of if you buck the leader you re dead, the document was in danger of being shelved.
ASPIRE s executive director, Glennis Hyacinth, said the group regards the draft policy as a positive development. She said that while the draft did not specifically call for reform , the recommendations were broad and all-encompassing .
Other persons should come out in support of the gender policy not necessarily to embrace the whole thing but certainly to support the consultative process, she said noting that groups like the Emmanuel Community represent a minority in terms of feelings about the draft gender policy .
A group of 13 NGOs that met soon after Manning s statement made it clear that there would be no revision without consultation .
The draft policy recommends that the government facilitate public debate on the promotion and protection of fundamental human rights and freedoms of all persons, irrespective of sexual preference or orientation .
The Emmanuel Community and Lawyers for Jesus have expressed concern that these recommendations could lead to the legitimisation of same-sex marriages and to gay couples being allowed the right to adopt children.
Youth Outreach programme director and national secretary designate of the Young Men s Christian Association (YMCA), Gregory Sloane-Seale, said his organisation supports the draft policy in keeping with Challenge 21 , a global YMCA established in Germany in the late 1990s that actively promotes women s rights and children s rights.
The areas of contention are integral. Once again, let s air it out. Let s not just function on emotion and what we believe. Let s open it up to what s happening on the ground, to what we know to be the truth, put systems in place to deal with real situations that real people are going through daily and not some pie in the sky idea we re advocating, he said.
Some arguing strenuously against the policy, in their own private lives, are not attaining even 10 percent of what they advocate how we should live, he said in an interview published here.
The debate on the draft policy seems far from over, even though a local newspaper said this week that whatever the arguments for or against some of the presumed contentious clauses such a debate ought to have been well and truly underway a long time ago .
The Express newspaper said while there is much to celebrate in the social, legal, cultural and economic advances made in Trinidad and Tobago, on the gender question much work remains to be done .
