NWC Hosts Beijing 25+ Report Consultation

At the 1995 Beijing Conference, Belize and one hundred and eighty-eight UN member states adopted the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action as a global agenda to improve human rights for women and girls. The BPFA sets strategic objectives to achieve gender equality in twelve critical areas of concern, including poverty, education and training, armed conflict, and economy. So, every five years the Platform for Action is reviewed and appraised continue to implement the commitments. The next review is scheduled for 2020, a year which will also mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Declaration and Platform for Action. To prepare for this deadline, the National Women’s Commission held its second national consultation with over forty partners in Belize City.  We stopped in at today’s session and spoke with Executive Director Cynthia Williams.

Cynthia Williams

Cynthia Williams, Executive Director, National Women’s Commission

“One of the major challenges we still face is the issue of the girl child and them facing violence. So, looking at the cultural issues and socialization values that really continue to hinder women, particularly in the area of allowing them to occupy spaces within decision making roles, although there has been achievement in the position that many women are able to occupy, the aspect of level of decision making we have still not been able to break that barrier. We can see this very clearly and so when we look at achievements in education for girls but also the fact that we have achieved, there are still gaps in unemployment. How do we provide the opportunity and space for girls who are interested and to help them to look at areas that are usually male dominated as an opportunity for them to also step in. So, although there have been achievements, some of it is still not at the level where we hope to be. One of the things that we will be looking at is prioritizing the different achievements that have been done and what are the gaps; so, looking at the short, medium and long term initiatives that we can undertake. Because reality of the matter is that the issues that we face will take a long time for us to actually fill the needs and gaps. So, being able to really identify those short, medium and long terms will definitely help organizations, particularly when it comes to the engagement of men. Apart from this consultation, the National Women’s Commission is already looking at newer strategies to see how we can include men or how do we work together to ensure that we bring the other aspect of this work.”