The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

FIVE women from Grand Bahama are among the official delegation from the Bahamas who will be attending the 61st Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (SCW61) at the United Nations in New York, which will be held March 13-24.

Justice Petra Hanna-Weekes and lawyers Charisse Brown, Jethlyn Burrows, Karen Ferguson-Bain, and Patrice Johnson will leave for the session on Sunday, March 12.

The priority theme this year is “Women’s Economic Empowerment in the Changing World of Work.” Some other topics also will be addressed, including, “The Challenges and Achievements in the Implementation of the Millennium Development Goals for Women and Girls,” and “The Empowerment of Indigenous Women.”

The sessions are held annually and in recent years at the event, Minister of Social Services Melanie Griffin has presented the position of the Bahamas government to the General Assembly of the United Nations on the issues under consideration.

“We are privileged to be included among the official delegates from the Bahamas attending the session this year,” said Mrs Burrows.

As members of the International Federation of Women Lawyers (Federation Internacional de Abogadas -FIDA) Justice Weekes, Mrs Brown, and Mrs Burrows, intends to also use the opportunity while attending the session to promote FIDA’s upcoming International Convention set for November 13-17.

Mrs Burrows said the Bahamas is aligned with North American region.

“Because of a rotation system, this means that no international president will be elected from our region for another 15 years and when that does happen, it is more likely than not that the next international president will be someone from mainland North America as opposed to the Caribbean,” she said.

Meanwhile, she thought it was an honour for the Bahamas, particularly Grand Bahama, to host this year’s 36th International Triennial Convention in Freeport.

The previous international convention was held in Bangalore, India, in November 2014 when Mrs Burrows was elected international president.

“We have hundreds of attorneys who are eager to attend the convention in Freeport,” she said, reporting that some 400 attendees are expected.

While the convention is eight months away, Mrs Burrows anticipates that it will bring some economic boost to the island.

“With the state of our economy right now, any injection is a help. We are happy that Grand Bahama has been selected because the convention could have been held anywhere in the Bahamas,” she said.

Participants will be accommodated at the Grand Bahama Lucayan Resort.

FIDA is an international non-political, non-profit, non-governmental organisation in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (ECOSOC). They meet every year in New York at the same time that the Sessions on the Commission of the Status of Women are taking place.

The organisation’s mission is to promote the welfare of women and children and the principle and aim of the United Nations in their legal and social aspects. FIDA obtained UN consultative status in 1954.

Mrs Burrows said the organisation performs various community service initiatives in the region. She said the local chapter in Grand Bahama offers scholarship every year to a student at The University of The Bahamas.