By Mel O’Brien
The country reports of Bulgaria and Jamaica were addressed at the end of the first week of the 52nd session of CEDAW. Both states worked quite hard to answer all the questions of the Committee.
In the case of Bulgaria, there have been quite a lot of new laws promulgated recently, as well as the establishment of a Commission on Protection Against Discrimination. The news laws include one on anti-discrimination (including gender, race, etc). In 2005, a domestic violence law was passed, which has also been amended in 2009 and 2010. The Penal Code also offers domestic violence protection, including provisions for violation of protection orders, and others on general crimes such as assault and murder. In addition, there are new hate crime provisions in the Penal Code, and new legislation against trafficking in persons. The government is in the process of amending the Penal Code further (for 2012 or 2013), including the removal of provisions that outlaw ‘crimes against sexual morality’, and the ability of rapists to avoid punishent by marrying their victims.
One of the ongoing concerns of the Committee through all of the issues was the issue of Roma women. In 2012, the Bulgarian government launched a National Strategy for the Integration of the Roma, and this focuses on prevention of discrimination and hate crimes, including against Roma women. The Strategy has two timeframes of application, the first from 2012 to 2015, the next from 2016 to 2020.
Within the field of education, the Bulgarians conducted a nationwide survey of textbooks to determine any discriminatory materials, and have eliminated any books contained discriminatory descriptions.
Trafficking in person is a big issue in Bulgaria. The government undertakes awareness campaigns, including amongst Roma, who are often at high risk of being trafficked. A special court has been established to deal with organised crime including trafficking in persons. Prosecutions have been made in cooperation with other states such as Austria.
22% of Bulgaria’s parliament are women, which is down from 27% in 2001-5, demonstrating that no country is immune to reductions despite good policies and a high level of women involvement in political leadership. There are, however, no temporary special measures in place such as quotas or the zebra method, and the Bulgarian delegation presented the involvement of women in politics as a ‘natural process’. This was highly criticised by the Committee’s Swiss member, who pointed out that in Switzerland, if the ‘natural process’ continued, they determined it would take over 900 years to achieve parity!
Jamaica was also very anti-quotas, using representational democracy as the reason, and that because of that it would be "impossible for us to dictate a quota". Instead, the Jamaican government will "encourage political parties" to seek female candidates, and educate women about joining the government. Again, the Committee encouraged the adoption of temporary special measures, as only 12.7% of Jamaica’s parliament are women. In contrast to those figures, women are highly represented in the foreign service, with 11 out of 19 heads of mission being women. The country has a female Prime Minister (who won in a landslide victory despite being outspoken in her support of LGBT people and their rights), and Chief Justice.
As with all reports, trafficking in persons was again an issue, with Jamaica as a country of origin and destination, as well as internal trafficking in persons. Prosecution of traffickers is very low. One main reason for this was given as being the fear of victims to testify agains their captors. The Evidence Act will soon be amended to allow for videotaped depositions and testimony, and it is hoped that this will increase the number of prosecutions by increasing the safety of victims.
Jamaica was criticised by the Committee for not having ratified the Optional Protocol yet, despite having promised at its 2006 report review to do so.
With regards to legislation, again, a lot of new legislation has been enacted, including a Charter of Fundamental Rights, a Sexual Offences Act in 2009, a trafficking in persons act in 2007, and several others. However, the new Sexual Offences Act contains a provision that permits marital rape. It is only a crime if the husband has a sexually transmitted infection and forces his wife to have sex. A member of the Jamaican delegation was involved in the debate on the Act, and admitted she was not happy with that provision, but it was voted in. The legislation will be reviwed within five years, with the goal to include removal of that provision.
To end on a positive note, it is wonderful to note that Jamaican girls are outperforming boys at secondary level. In addition, more females than males are graduating from all tertiary-level courses with the exception of agriculture and engineering. The Jamaican delegation noted that there is concern that there will not be enough educated men for the Jamaican women!