UN Panel Discusses Law And Practice In Ending Discrimination Against Gambian Women
New York, Jul 18 2005 4:00PM
Though Gambia was the first West African country to appoint a woman Vice President more than a decade ago, the Gambian
Government has expressed certain reservations about equality for women, based on the perceived restrictions of culture
and religion, a United Nations expert group says.
Since Vice President Isatou Njie Saïdy's appointment in 1994, the country has added "on the basis of gender" to its
anti-discrimination provisions, but only 27 percent of women are literate, compared to 54 per cent of men in its 1.3
million, 90 per cent Muslim population, the 23-member UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
(CEDAW) <"http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2005/wom1517.doc.htm">concluded from the Government's report.
The CEDAW experts pointed out that although the Government acceded to the anti-discrimination Convention, it expressed
reservations about the African Women's Protocol on rights also covered by the Convention, and that the country's legal
system, lacking such laws as those prohibiting domestic violence and sexual harassment, sometimes allowed civil rights
violations.
On the report's position that the extreme poverty in the country, combined with the growing tourism industry, was luring
girls into prostitution and making them more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS, the CEDAW experts said tourism may have increased
because of the easy availability of prostitutes, especially minors.
The Gambian delegation, headed by Minister for Fisheries and Water Resources Bai Mass Taal, said Gambia had tried to
collaborate with the countries of origin of "sex tourists," but those Governments often aided the perpetrators by giving
them new passports so that they could flee prosecution.
Meanwhile, the United States and United Kingdom were assisting the Government in drafting laws to comply with the
Convention, but the Government realized that it was not enough to change a law, the delegation said.
Mindsets needed to be changed and the Government was engaging in a dialogue with religious and other civil society
leaders to influence attitudes towards such issues as female circumcision. Recent draft legislation on children banned
female circumcision, the Gambian delegates said.
Human rights stood above sensitivity to cultural norms, the CEDAW experts said, and they expressed concern that
religious leaders were calling the shots in a secular state.
ENDS