Still A Distant Dream

Samantha Magick

In Solomon Islands, a local businessman said trafficking of Honiara-based female prostitutes to the logging camps in Western Province is on the rise.

And in the Commonwealth of Northern Marianas, there were reports of a sudden increase in prostitution following the closure of three garment factories. Lt. Governor Diego Benavente was quoted as saying, "the women that we see running around Garapan-we're trying to figure out where they are coming from"-a poor choice of words that goes to the heart of what was being discussed a world away, at a United Nations conference in New York.

A major theme of the International Women's Day celebrations at the Secretariat of the Pacific Community was women's leadership. SPC Secretary-General Lourdes Pangelinan says "women's participation in politics is...still very low."

The UN conference on the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women heard that six Pacific Island Countries-Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Tuvalu - had been included on a list of the so-called "dirty dozen," countries that have no women representatives in Parliament.

Tongan women preparing for the Kingdom's election are trying to do something about that.

By ratifying CEDAW, states commit themselves to take proactive action to end all forms of discrimination against women. The 179 countries that are party to CEDAW are obliged to report every four years to the UN CEDAW Committee on their progress.

This failure of many island states to fulfill this requirement raised eyebrows in New York. Only Samoa and Fiji did so ahead of time, although Vanuatu took its report to the meeting.

Reporting can be an onerous task true, particularly for those nations who've signed up to a whole raft of conventions and treaties, but why do so if you're not prepared to comply? Some point to the under-resourcing of departments for women, and the lack of specific statistical data, but without committing to doing the hard work, it all reeks of tokenism.

In the middle of last year, Pacific leaders highlighted seven emerging issues affecting women in the region: HIV/AIDS, globalization and trade liberalization, labor migration, poverty, peace and security, tradition and religion and media and communications technology.

Nevertheless, some improvements were communicated at the UN meeting, including a new Industrial Relations bill now before Fiji's Parliament, which will prohibit discrimination based on gender and ensure equal pay for work of equal value.

Kiribati's Minister for Internal and Social Affairs, Amberoti Nikora, told the UN that violence against women is no longer a taboo subject in the region, and that "much work has and continues to be done around support for victims of violence, improving law enforcement, judicial education, and effective sexual offenses' legislation."

Nikora says emerging issues of concern include the increasing exposure to the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the region, the human rights of migrant workers, and the growing problem of trafficking in women, and that these need to be addressed through closer regional cooperation.

It is not all bleak. In Niue, International Women's Day was marked by the announcement that secretary to government, Sisilia Talagi, was to be the country's new high commissioner to New Zealand, the first time a woman has been appointed to a diplomatic post from Niue. She'll be going, of course, to a country where women hold the top posts of Prime Minister, Speaker of Parliament, Governor-General and Chief Justice. What a great day it will be when it's possible for Pacific Island women to compete for such positions through the quality of their work and experience, unhindered by what sex they happen to be born.