ISO: VCT
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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


STATEMENT BY HONOURABLE JOHN HORNE,
MINISTER OF EDUCATION, CULTURE AND WOMEN'S AFFAIRS
OF ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENDADINES
AND LEADER OF THE DELEGATION

TO THE FOURTH WORLD CONFERENCE ON WOMEN
BEIJING, CHINA, SEPTEMBER 11, 1995


Madam President,
Distinguished delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen

It is a pleasure to bring you greetings from Prime Minister The Right
Honourable Sir James Fitzallan Mitchell, the warm friendly people and the
Government of our beautiful plural country - St. Vincent and the
Grenadines.

I extend congratulations to you on your assumption of the Chair. I thank
the people and Government of the Peoples Republic of China for their
gracious hospitality.

Special words of encouragement and support are offered to our sisters and
brothers in Antigua and Barbuda, St. Kitts/Nevis and St. Maarten as you
go through the arduous task of rebuilding after the hurricane. We will do
whatever we can to assist you.

Madam President:

Our country attained independence a mere 16 years ago. It is therefore,
much like some whose cause we champion in this forum, still in its
adolescence.

Unlike most of our neighboring and sister Caribbean states agriculture is
the mainstay of our mono-crop economy - bananas being our chief export.
My Government recognises the importance of economic diversification and
diversification within agriculture - not away from, but around bananas. I
need hardly say that women play a major part in agricultural production
and we have tangible evidence of the extent to which the returns enable
them to put food on the table and to care for their children.

Our Government and many other governments are distressed by the
production and transiting of illegal drugs in our countries. Our
Government has always cooperated with one of our traditional friends in
allowing its helicopters to search for and destroy plantations of this
illicit trade in areas inaccessible to our limited security forces. It
was indeed a bitter pill to swallow when that "friendly" country recently
launched an unwarranted attack on us claiming that we were not doing
enough to eradicate the drug trade and falsely accusing us of being
involved ourselves. In the words of my Prime Minister in a letter to the
Ambassador quote - "We expect and prepare ourselves for unwarranted
attacks from our foes; we did not expect it from our friends."

St. Vincent and the Grenadines and three East Caribbean - Windward
Islands, as ACP countries, share a mere 2% of the European Banana Market.
These four islands now face total collapse of their economies and
tumultuous hardship and suffering because our 'friendly' country finds it
expedient on behalf of transnational corporations to call for the
withdrawal of temporary preferential treatment allowed us by the European
Union in our peculiar circumstances. This kind of expediency will never
help us to empower our women, eradicate poverty from among them or
improve the lot of the girl child.

Let me state categorically that the Government of St. Vincent and the
Grenadines will never give up the fight to protect its people, in
particular women and children, from the scourge of illegal substances.

Madam President,

Twenty years ago the U.N. General Assembly proclaimed 1975 International
Women's year thus placing women's concerns in the international
spotlight. The declaration of the period 1976 to 1985 - the United
Nations Decade for Women sought to put under the microscope the status of
women and the rights of women in order to redress the imbalance that has
tended to make equality between women and men an elusive dream.

Today we meet in Beijing with the intention of giving the world community
an agreed Platform for action that, in so far as women are concerned,
will give meaningful effect to the rights and freedoms in the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. With respect, Madam President, each of us
sovereign states should be penalized in some way if we continue to make a
mockery of our commitment to the equality of rights of women and men as
enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations. It is therefore fitting
that the focus of our attention has shifted to gender sensitivity.

The Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines abhors discrimination of
any sort. St. Vincent and the Grenadines is in fact a signatory to the
Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against
Women. The incidence of Violence Against Women pervades the international
community in one form or another. Whatever form it takes-physical, sexual
or psychological - it must be tackled positively and expeditiously.
Violence within the family including battering and sexual abuse of female
children in the household must be systematically rooted out beginning
with appropriate education entrenched in the system and Community
education with incentives and protection for persons to come forward
without fear of reprisal. However, implementation of a long term strategy
designed to overcome the problem of violence against women must not be
accepted as the only strategy. Adequate and effective legislation must be
put in place and its implementability ensured.

St. Vincent and the Grenadines is one of three Caribbean Community-wide
countries and the first Eastern-Caribbean country to establish a Family
Court. Its president is an eminent Caribbean woman.

Madam President, the despicable practice of female genital mutilation,
the incidence of forced pregnancy, the use of rape as a weapon of armed
conflict and the reprehensible act of ethnic cleansing must not merely be
condemned by the international community but must be subject to punitive
measures if it becomes clear that a country is making little or no effort
to eradicate these problems.

We know that more than fifteen million girls between the ages fifteen to
nineteen give birth each year. We also know that these young mothers are
highly susceptible to complications during pregnancy and to maternal
death. Boys and men must be educated and made aware of their own
contributory responsibility for the possible death of a young girl.

Madam President,

The issue of education of the girl child does not hold the identical
significance in St. Vincent and the Grenadines as it does in some other
parts of the Caribbean and the world but the end result could be the
same. In my country the ratio of girls to boys at the primary education
level is 50 - 50. However, at the secondary level there is a dramatic
swing to 60- 40 in favour of girls. We are actively looking into this
problem awareness of which will no doubt be heightened by the newer
concept of gender sensitivity. However, Madam President, notwithstanding
this specific situation, in which eligibility for primary, secondary and
tertiary education may be assured, my Government is pained by the fact
that these eligible young persons, the majority of whom comprises girls,
are not always able to take advantage of their eligibility. The effects
of economic recession in the developed world and the debilitating impact
of structural adjustment have contrived to limit severely the
government's provision of transportation over difficult terrain to enable
these children to get to school. In one instance children of indigenous
peoples in the northern region of our small mountainous island get up at
4:00 in the morning and walk for an hour and a half to meet the bus that
then takes them to school. The question remains...In what physical and
emotional condition do these children start their school day?

My Government is proud of the success it has achieved in an experimental
program to ensure teenage mothers continue their education immediately
following their first birth and we will expand the effort to take care of
current demand while discouraging sexual promiscuity and the incidence of
teen pregnancy through a continuing vigorous education program.

Madam President,

Poverty eradication as outlined in the Platform for Action will naturally
be preceded by its first step poverty alleviation. It is incumbent upon
all the members of this world body to direct urgent attention and
resources to this objective whether or not any member's economic
circumstance renders it impervious to significant unemployment and by
extension, poverty.

The empowerment of women particularly in the political process must be
undertaken by men as a distinct responsibility of theirs and embraced
without reservation. Men must be seen to actively encourage and support
women in entering higher levels of decision making and girls in
appreciating the importance of aspiring to the highest corridors of
responsibility. All of this effort, however, can come to nought if women
themselves do not reinforce the efforts of their sisters to empower
themselves.

Madam President,

Women have long been agents of change in so unobtrusive a manner that in
many instances men are falsely credited with the initiation of that
change. As manipulators of stringent budgets women have performed
acrobatic feats in keeping the family, mind and body, together. It is
within this context, Madam President, that I believe the International
Community should recognise women's unremunerated work placing a value
upon it, and including it in national satellite accounts the activation
of which would require appropriate technical assistance.

There is an urgent need for men and women to be educated to respect
women's rights and for men to share responsibility with women in matters
of sexuality and reproduction. This is perhaps one way in which the world
will better appreciate women’s' right to determine the number and spacing
of their children.

Notwithstanding their mammoth contribution to national development women
continue to be negatively and sometimes disparagingly portrayed by the
media. Ultimate responsibility for this stereotyping rests squarely with
the media to which the world now looks for urgent redress.

Madame President,

I wish in closing to congratulate the Non-Governmental Organisations on
the consistency of their efforts to achieve recognition of the universal
rights of women, the rights of the child and the girl child in
particular.

The Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines wishes to affirm its
support for the Platform of Action and pledges a redoubling of its
efforts within the scope of its own resources and any it may receive for
the purpose to ensure that the noble objectives of Equality, Development
and Peace as espoused in the Nairobi Forwarding Looking Strategies for
the Advancement of Women become a reality. Equally important, however, is
the responsibility of all Governments, Institutions and NGO's here
present and indeed those absent to ensure history records the Fourth
World Conference on Women as a resounding success by virtue of the
positive commitments and actions implemented by all parties.

Thank You.