Women’s equality in the UK – A health check

Group in 2011 that little had been done to implement CEDAW. We are concerned to see that the
Isle of Man’s report (Annex 6 of the Government report) demonstrates little activity, including
no activity in relation to Article 5 of CEDAW.
The Overseas Territories
Firstly, we would like to hold up the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s (FCO’s) work with
the Overseas Territories as an example of best practice. We would like to see the FCO’s
accessibility, accountability and interest in women’s human rights set a bench mark for other
government department work to promote human rights.
CEDAW is a very important instrument for the OTs. With the exception of Gibraltar, the OTs are
not members of the European Union and are also not signatories of the ECHR and so CEDAW
offers a vital human rights safeguard in these areas. We are therefore delighted that Montserrat,
Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and Anguilla took part in a high profile conference in 2010 to set
three year CEDAW extension plans, alongside the British Virgin Islands and Turks and Caicos,
who explored implementation. When we contacted Anguilla in 2011, we were particularly
impressed with the jurisdiction’s commitment to CEDAW and women’s rights, for example
with the establishment of a high profile weekly Gender Working Committee and the planned
introduction of new domestic violence legislation. This appears to be a crucial time for these
territories and we hope that the UK will demonstrate on-going support and monitoring.
However, there is a need for greater consistency in the support provided to the OTs by the UK
regarding CEDAW, for example why were all OTs not invited to the 2010 conference? Why has no
similar work been carried out in the Falkland Islands (covered by CEDAW) and Gibraltar (which is
not yet covered)?
We understand that the 2010 conference did include some representatives from civil society, 6
but believe that the FCO could do more to empower civil society in the OTs to campaign for
the extension and implementation of CEDAW. It is civil society who can hold their government
to account and this key facet of democracy should play a part in the FCO and the jurisdictions’
own development strategies. We particularly recommend that the FCO and OT administrations
engage with UN Women to promote greater participation of women in the OTs with the CEDAW
reporting process.
The UK Government has an explicit legal responsibility to ensure ‘good governance’ in the OTs. 7
How can the UK say they have met this obligation if they have allowed women’s human rights
to be violated? Without better gender monitoring systems in place it is our position that the UK
is not fully aware of the position of women in the OTs and so does not even know the extent to
which women’s rights are violated in these territories.
Recommendation:
Our final and strongest recommendation is for a gender-monitoring post to be
established in the UK to collect and collate data from the Crown Dependencies and
Overseas Territories
6. The delegate list is set out in ‘Short report on the CEDAW workshop held in Anguilla 27-29 October 2010’ http://www.knowyourconstitution.
ky/sites/default/files/CEDAW%20Workshop%20Summary%20%20Report.pdf
7. So, for example, in 2009 the UK suspended the government of the Turks and Caicos due to allegations of corruption, see: BBC News
(2009) ‘UK imposes Turks and Caicos rule’, BBC News, 14th August 2009 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8202339.stm
200 Women’s equality in the UK: CEDAW shadow report 2013