This past summer, I was interning
in Tonga. I was interning for the Ministry of Information, under Ministries of
Meteorology, Environment, Information, Disaster, Energy, Communication and
Climate Change (MEIDECC). I experienced CEDAW for the first time. One morning,
the main street, Taufa’ahau Road in Nuku’alofa the capital city was buzzing
with many people lining up on the sides of the street to witness thousands of
people marching to the Parliament House to present their petition not to adopt
CEDAW.
The discovery was that Tonga
already accepted CEDAW without the approval of Parliament, without tabling to
Privy Council for the King of Tonga to approve. The King is the only person
allowed by law to sign any treaty. Instead, Tonga under the new democratic
government during the session of the United Nations in New York in April
informed this session that Tonga had rectified CEDAW and its adoption. This
rectification came as a shock to the people of Tonga and their dissatisfaction
was showed with some of the people of Tonga in collaboration with many women’s
groups, church organizations, and non-governmental organizations marching the
streets of Nuku’alofa against this new modification and petitioning to abolish
this treaty completely. A few months later, His Majesty King Tupou VI rejected
CEDAW.
In Tonga women are not entitle to
inherit land. The gender issues versus policy process in the kingdom is that
there is injustice with women entitling inheritance rights of land. In the
government of Tonga, there is no woman in the Privy Council, no woman in
parliament and cabinet, there is no woman in the judiciary system, and there is
no woman in any ministerial portfolios of government. There is an imbalance of
women’s equality in Tonga’s executive and decision bodies.
There was contradiction during this
real life experience especially when most of the marchers on the streets were
women. These women’s banners stated that; “CEDAW is evil”, “CEDAW is
anti-Christ”, and “Tonga doesn’t need CEDAW”. These were few examples of
banners that these women were holding during their march. One was amazed with
the media buzz of CEDAW, where all seven local newspaper’s front page was on
CEDAW, all three local televisions’ primetime programs were on CEDAW, and most
of all radio stations debates were on CEDAW. The media frenzies were all
against CEDAW.
Women of Tonga perhaps should
support CEDAW especially when they have no representations at any of the
executive branches of government.
100% Support.
ReplyDeleteThank you Joey for your support. I will be posting up four more in the few days, and four more after that. The analytical and thorough research, I hope to write a very comprehensive report!
ReplyDeletePerhaps the dissatisfaction of the women at the grassroots level is a reflection of the extent of their understanding of CEDAW? While I think it's a great idea to champion women leadership at state level, wouldn't it be more appropriate to raise greater awareness at grassroots/village/island level on what it means to have equal opportunity and what equitable outcomes mean? Also, there is no guarantee that women at the top will be as sympathetic to the plight of women at the grassroots level once they reach executive level. They might be too busy fighting to remain in power and not have time to dedicate to supporting women's causes in general. Just a thought...
ReplyDeleteI thank you bumbaray for your great contribution. I have considered advocating at the grassroots level but then it would be more depressing knowing that there are factors involved with not only their vulnerability to the subject but their unwillingness to embrace change. You hit it right on the nail with women fighting to maintain their top position while in power and neglect supporting other women's causes at the lowest level. But then that was the reason why they reached the top was because of the support of the women at the bottom, and seriously good leaders will find a way to help.
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