PNCR SALUTES GUYANA’S WOMEN ON INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2010

Mar 07, 2010 APNU Column, Features / Columnists

On Monday 8th March 2010, nations the world over will celebrate International Women’s Day, a day on which the social, economic and political achievements of women are acknowledged.

The PNCR takes this opportunity to salute all Guyanese women on this significant day.

PNCR DEMONSTRATED COMMITMENT TO EQUALITY OF WOMEN

As the Government, the PNC had demonstrated a long commitment to the international treatises and international development commitments related to the development and progress of women.

Guyana, under the leadership of the PNC, was among the first Member States to sign and ratify the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women without reservation.

We had also been the first country of the region to present a candidate for membership of the Committee.

The PNC’s commitment to the development and progress of Guyanese women, included the provision of the State Paper on Equality for women in 1976; Enshrinement of the principle of equality for women under Article 29 of the 1980 Constitution of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana; the establishment of the Women’s Affairs Bureau; the signing and ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women in 1980; Representation on the U.N.

Committee on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women in 1982; The Removal of Discrimination Against Children Born out of Wedlock Act in 1983; and the Equal Rights and the Married Persons (Property) Amendment Acts of 1990, giving women a better opportunity to benefit during the division of property. The work and commitment of our Party, for the progress of the women of Guyana, are well known and documented.

THE STRUGGLE STILL CONTINUES

Women of Guyana, we honour you for your contributions to the Guyanese family the society and the nation!

Unfortunately, women in Guyana, in their homes, in the schools, health clinics, markets and other places of work are still striving to uplift their lives and the lives of their families.

Our Party especially identifies those women who work in the health clinics providing gentle, caring and professional health care everyday for so many children, their mothers and fathers under difficult circumstances. Their work and commitment should be recognised and adequately rewarded.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The PNCR also acknowledges those women who teach our children in and out of schools— making their awesome contribution for raising an educated generation of Guyanese. We salute those mothers who must work as security guards, often for long hours and seven days a week to meet some of the basic needs of their children. We honour you.

We salute the disabled and specially challenged women whose zest for life we cherish as it provides us with an impetus to keep up the struggle for women’s rights and opportunities.

We salute those women who are in the fields and factories: we acknowledge and praise you for bearing the pain of sore hands and feet and tired bodies as you add value to the Gross Domestic Product of our country.

To those of you who walk and sell, we honour you for bringing your products to our doorsteps making it easier for us even though your feet are sore from the harsh concrete and your bodies burnt by the piercing sun.

EQUAL RIGHTS, EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES: PROGRESS FOR ALL

We salute all Guyanese women and endorse the UN theme, for this 8th day of March 2010: Equal Rights, Equal Opportunities: Progress for All.

The PNCR knows and has always proffered that women must be at the heart of our nation’s efforts for national development to take place.

Women’s rights and equal opportunities are key to any progress in our country. One of the most powerful lessons, confirmed at Nairobi and Cairo and Beijing Conferences, is that the progress of a nation depends not only on protecting the fundamental human rights of our women but on ensuring that women have access to the tools of opportunity.

Without those opportunities, women will continue to suffer and their suffering will not only drag them down but will also drag down their families and our society as well.

Women in Guyana have always given themselves to their families, other persons’ families, neighbourhoods and communities, by the road corner, in the fields and factories, in public institutions; in churches, in the masjids, in the temples, to commerce, government, the media, universities and international organizations’; informing, healing and comforting, leading and following, participating and contributing, enlightening, creating and encouraging, multi-tasking, loving and guiding, laughing and crying, being tough, gentle and strong.

Yet, they remain financially impoverished, far too often living with little or no choice regarding their womanhood.

Many young women in Guyana see no sustained path before them to ensure their progress.

They feel hopeless and are not receiving appropriate and relevant training to enable them to earn an independent and dignified income.

Guyana cannot move forward if our women and children are trapped in an endless cycles of poverty; when too many of them still die in childbirth as a result of the deficiencies of the national health care system; when they cannot get a job or receive equal pay for equal work; when there are increasing incidences of their being murdered by their partners; when they must endure the tragedies of Buxton, Agricola, Lusignan and Bartica, and the violence and the horror that have beset our country over recent years.

The PNCR endorses the theme for this year’s celebration and will continue to promote all efforts to ensure that there is actually equality of opportunity for women in public life.

The PNCR will reject wholeheartedly any efforts that inhibit women’s access to decision-making and leadership positions.

The PNCR will see an end to the imprisonment of women’s leadership capacity and capability so that our country can truly benefit from the best among us.

CONGRATULATIONS!

Congratulations to the women of Guyana for making due sacrifices for our children, families and our nation. Our women deserve much more than our nation has thus far acknowledged and that wrong must be righted as we honour them on International Day of Women for Equal Rights, Equal Opportunity: Progress for all!