ISO: BLZ
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The electronic version of this document has been prepared at the Fourth
World Conference on Women by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
in collaboration with the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women
Secretariat.
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AS WRITTEN


FOURTH WORLD CONFERENCE ON WOMEN
ADDRESS OF THE HON. FAITH BABB
Minister of State
Ministry of Human Resources, Women' s Affairs and Youth Development
BELIZE

Beijing 8 September 1995


Madam President,
Your Excellencies,
ladies and gentlemen,

I would like to offer my congratulations to you, Madam President, on
your election to preside over this conference, and to express my
Government' s compliments to the Secretary General of the Conference and
the Commission on the Status of Women for their sterling efforts in
preparing for and executing this unprecedented mammouth and successful
undertaking. I also wish to acknowledge with sincere gratitude the
hospitality of the people and Government of the People’s Republic of
China.

The Fourth World Conference on Women is pregnant with significance.
Firstly, it seeks to break new ground, after two decades of concerted
action to promote equality and development for women. Secondly, it also
allows us to review the progress and to identify the actions that still
need to be taken to achieve the goals set two decades ago.

In the third place, the Beijing Conference, like the World Social
Summit, occurs during the fiftieth anniversary year of the United
Nations. This has been a time of substantial re-thinking of the role of
the organization and of the centrality of people to the process of
development. This rethinking must include giving special attention to
the place of women in the process of development and in all facets of
decision-making. It is only in that way that we can ensure that we
achieve Equality, Development and Peace for all the world.

Madam President, even though Belize is geographically in Central
America, it has close ties with the countries of the English-speaking
Caribbean Community. Since Belize is at the very center of the newly-
established Association of Caribbean States and is unique in containing
all the elements of the Association's sub-regions, my country is a vital
link for the Caribbean area and a bridge between Latin America and the
Caribbean.

Not surprisingly, given Belize' s centrality, the people of Belize are
of diverse ethnic origins. This is partly because, since the 1980s,
there has been a significant inflow of migrants from the neighbouring
Central American countries. Some of them come to seek refuge, while
others have come as undocumented migrant workers. These Central American
migrants are drawn by Belize' s tranquillity. Although we have made
substantial efforts to accommodate them, they impose severe strains on
our limited resources. As a matter of fact, Madam President, due to this
migration, in recent years the literacy rate has declined from 96% to a
staggering 74%. Other indices of human development have also plunged.
Nevertheless, due to statistical errors, this year' s Human Development
Report states that Belize has moved from position 88 to position 29 in
the Human Development Index. The United Nations Development Programme
has generously acknowledged these errors. We call on our partners in
development to take the errors into consideration as we continue to
discuss Belize' s development, especially as it relates to poverty as it
affects women.

The current unemployment rate for women is 17%. This is four per cent
higher than the general rate. Approximately half of the unemployed women
have never worked and they are more likely to be looking for work than
are men. Since the 1980s, there has been a significant decline in the
unemployment rate of women. This decline, however, is due to the
withdrawal of unemployed women into home duties and does not mask the
growing level of unemployment of women.

Madam President, we have identified some of the barriers to the full
participation of women in the labour force and are discussing measures
to eliminate them. One of the key strategies identified is educating and
training women to make a more significant contribution to the country' s
economic development. Another strategy is to translate into action our
recognition that unremunerated home duties contributes to the gross
domestic product. A further strategy is to provide more affordable child
care. We have also redoubled efforts to seek further equity for, and
non-discriminatory treatment of, women by implementing their rights to
full compensation for all their labours. Madam President, we must ensure
that women be given full and meaningful access to all opportunities .

Almost 25% of all Belizean households are headed by women. One in five
persons living in poverty comes from households headed by women. This
year, Belize has embarked on a comprehensive assessment of poverty. The
results from this exercise will enable Government to address the issues
of poverty from a gender perspective and to provide appropriate
remedies.

Madam President, at present women are undoubtedly the worse victims of
violence. We therefore particularly recall the achievement at the World
Social Summit in decrying the depiction in the media of violence, as
well as cruelty and pornography. We are therefore happy that the draft
Platform For Action greatly expands these expressions of concern.

In Belize, we have identified violence as a priority area for immediate
action. We have taken positive steps towards eliminating this scourge. I
am proud to say that, in 1993, we enacted legislation to protect victims
of domestic violence. This has increased public awareness of the nature
and pervasiveness of such violence. Thus, there has been an increase in
the number of reported cases. We are therefore strengthening our
campaign to sensitize medical personnel and law enforcement officers
into awareness that domestic violence is not a family affair.

Madam President, it is my pleasure to inform you that there is presently
before the legislature a bill on protection against sexual harassment.
It is mainly designed to protect students, teachers and employees. This
eagerly-anticipated legislation will be enacted before the end of the
year.

Yet, Madam President, we acknowledge the need to improve community
education and heighten advocacy to ensure that women benefit from our
initiatives. And we will not cease to strengthen our legislation
concerning such evils as sexual offenses, including rape.

Madam President, women are the care-givers. Truly, if we educate a
woman, we teach an entire family. Also, society benefits if healthy
women give birth to healthy babies and are better able to care for them
and the rest of the family, in partnership with their male counterparts.
Likewise, women' s access to health services, particularly reproductive
health information and services, is of utmost importance for achieving
improvement for the world's women.

In this connection, I must note that Belize continues to have a high
fertility rate; some five children per woman. This is one of the highest
rates in Central America and the Caribbean. Teenage fertility is also
considered one of the highest. One in every five births is to a
teenager. Further-more, one birth in three is unplanned and one in eight
is unwanted. We have made public these alarming findings. And we believe
that there is a widespread conviction that family planning and family
life education should be promoted and that family planning services
should be made avail-able everywhere and to everyone who wants it.

Madam President, Belize is faithfully abiding by the commitment made at
the International Conference on Population and Development and is in the
process of establishing a population unit and formulating a national
population policy. Our evolving policies reflect the ICPD theme of
Gender Equality, Equity and the Empowerment of Women. That theme is
closely related to the theme of this Conference - Equality, Development
and Peace.

Furthermore, in striving to attain the commitments of the World Social
Summit of eliminating poverty and achieving full employment, women' s
economic independence and their inclusion in the development process is
essential. We repeat what was stressed in the main Belize intervention
at the Summit, that, firstly, we must make collective efforts to ensure
greater equity; secondly, that since discrimination and related evils
are humanity' s worse enemy, we must enhance our various assurances of
non-discrimination; and thirdly, that we must fortify what, at
Copenhagen, we called "humanitarian universalism." These collective
efforts are also essential to the achievement of the Beijing agenda.
Above all, let us not treat these three recent conferences as separate
exercises, but as an organic enterprise, designed to accomplish the
betterment of the human and social condition.

Thank you, Madam President.