BACKGROUND
Before the setting up of the Gender (formerly
the Women's Section) of the CMJA in August 1994, the Association was
not unconcerned with issues surrounding women. The Rule of Law provides
that the law should apply equally to all individuals who make up society
regardless of gender, race, religion, and so on.
Commonwealth Judicial Officers have participated
in human rights conferences and meetings organised by the Commonwealth
Secretariat, Interights, and other international agencies since the
late 1970's. each passing decade, human rights issues have become an
increasingly significant part of any conference agenda, and part and
parcel of discussions on development in the legal field. Human Rights
as a distinct area of Commonwealth focus became crystallised in what
is referred to as the Harare Declaration of 1991 and is synonymous with
democracy and good governance.
The Gender
Section of the CMJA was established in August 1994 to
promote the interests of women jurists throughout the Commonwealth and
to ensure wherever possible that women have equal access to the law.
The Section was set up in Zimbabwe during the CMJA's Tenth Triennial
Conference. The current Chair is Mrs Clover Thompson-Gordon of Jamaica.
The previous chair was the Hon Miss Justice P Macaulay of Sierra Leone.
Following its establishment the Section
embarked on a Gender Bias Project which aimed to survey gender bias
within the judiciaries of the Commonwealth. Statistics on the number
of women magistrates and judges were collected and assessed, the results
of which have been incorporated into the training programmes of the
CMJA.
The Gender Section has been actively
involved in four judicial colloquia on the Domestic Application of International
Human Rights Norms to promote Women's Human Rights which were jointly
organised with the Commonwealth Secretariat's Gender and Youth Division
and the Commonwealth Foundation. The Colloquia took place in Zimbabwe
in 1994, Beijing 1995, and Hong Kong 1996 and Guyana 1997.
The
Victoria Falls Proclamation on the Rights of Women was adopted in
Zimbabwe in 1994. These principles were approved and reaffirmed at both
Beijing, Hong Kong and Guyana, all of which produced recommendations
relevant to the needs and interests of their particular region. The
Council of the CMJA has also given full backing and approval to the
Declaration.
The CMJA was an official Observer at
the Commonwealth Ministerial Meeting on Gender in Beijing 1995 which
met to consider and approve the Commonwealth Plan of Action, produced
by an expert group set up following the Cyprus Heads of Government meeting
in 1993. Together with other Commonwealth Professional Associations
under the auspices of the Organisation of Commonwealth Associations,
the CMJA participated in a workshop which identified the Plan of Action
as an example of the sort of Commonwealth programme on which CPA's could
base their collaborative efforts and activities vis a vis intergovernmental
organisations, with the view to streamlining objectives and therefore
among other things secure project funding.
The CMJA is working closely with other
non-governmental organisations, academic institutions, intergovernmental
organisations and national judicial bodies on gender issues. It participated
in the formulation of the Commonwealth Secretariat's Gender and Equality
Plan of Action agreed by Commonwealth Women's Affairs Ministers in 2004.
It also participated in the Gender and Human Rights Expert Group convened
by the Commonweatlh Secretariat in January 2004. In conjunction with
the Commonwealth Lawyers' Association, the Legal and Constitutional
Affairs Division of the Commonwealth Secretariat it launches a Gender
and Human Rights Toolkit in March 2005 which was updated in June
2007 for use by paralegals, lawyers and judicial officers in the Commonwealth.
The third objective of the Gender Section
is to convene meetings of judicial officers and to facilitate the exchange
of information among them and to discuss common problems. In practice
the composition of participation at the judicial colloquia so far held
have been that of an almost equal number of women and men judicial officers.
The view being taken is that gender bias exists among women and men,
and that raising gender awareness is desirable generally. In other words
it is a matter of overall judicial education. The CMJA incorporates
gender bias as a regular topic for discussion groups in its education
programmes across the Commonwealth. Specifically the seminars help to
identify gender bias in court and in the attitudes of those concerned
with the court, namely magistrates and judges, counsel and court administrators.
Since 1999, the CMJA has run a number of Gender Section Conferences
in conjunction with the Caribbean Regional Conferences in order to raise
awareness of gender issues. These have take place in St Lucia (1999),
The Bahamas (2000) and Barbados (2001) Bermuda (2007). A Gender Day
forum also took place during the Jubilee Conference 2002.
Contact Details
For further information on the activities of
the Gender Section please contact the Chairperson, Mrs Clover Thompson-Gordon,
OD at gender@cmja.org
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