A pleasant afternoon to you and a warm welcome to the opening of the CARICOM-UN Women Workshop with Caribbean Artists UNiTE-ing against Gender Based Violence. I have the pleasure of welcoming you on behalf of the Acting Secretary General of the Caribbean Community – Her Excellency Ambassador Lolita Applewhaite.
I wish to express our sincere appreciation to the Government of Suriname which has, through its Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Education and Community Development, provided tremendous support to ensure that the workshop is taking place this week in this beautiful country of Suriname also known as “the beating heart of the Amazon.” I would also like to sincerely thank UN Women for the financial and technical support that has made this Workshop possible. We appreciate their continued partnership and collaboration in such important initiatives.
This workshop provides an excellent opportunity for government agencies, development partners, gender, culture and communication specialists and our own Caribbean artists to pool their expertise and creative skills in strengthening the call for a more gender-sensitive Community, which is based on equity and mutual respect and is free of violence.
We are especially pleased to welcome artists from Belize, Guyana and Suriname to this Workshop. They represent the mainland countries in the Caribbean Community, which are well known for their indigenous, First Nations people. Over the next three days, the artists will learn more about gender and gender based violence and how to apply the tool of edutainment – which is educating through entertainment – to raise public awareness of Gender Based Violence.
We are looking forward to a rich cultural exchange among these artists and to the production of public service announcements and jingles to increase the advocacy against gender based violence. We expect that the media outputs of the Workshop will have an interesting fusion of popular cultural expressions from the many languages of the Community – especially those of the First Nations people.
With the knowledge and skills gained during this Workshop, our artists will join the regional and global public education campaign that the United Nations Secretary General initiated in 2010 to “UNiTEto End Violence against Women.”
CARICOM is fully in support of this United Nations campaign and also has its own initiatives to address this serious threat to the stability and security of the Community. On International Women’s Day in March last year, we appointed Dr. Rosina Wiltshire, former UNDP Resident Representative to Barbados and the OECS, as the CARICOM Advocate for Gender Justice.
With the support of national researchers, Dr. Wiltshire has conducted research in six Member States – including Suriname, Belize and Guyana – with funding from the Government of Spain and UN Women. Dr. Wiltshire is currently preparing what is expected to be a groundbreaking report on “Youth, Masculinities and Violence” in CARICOM. Her report, which will be completed by the end of this year, will help to guide the regional strategy to reduce the high incidence of violence against women and girls in the Community.
This Workshop is also the beginning of a process to enlist the support of our Caribbean artists to serve as change agents, to contribute to a more gender sensitive Community by ensuring that their artistic expressions and creations promote positive messages.
CARICOM therefore highly values and has confidence in the artists and the specialists present here today who have committed themselves to three days of productive, creative sessions, to deliver excellent and strong public campaign products to send a loud and clear message to “STOP THE VIOLENCE AGAINST OUR GIRLS AND WOMEN!”
On behalf of CARICOM, I wish you all a highly productive and successful workshop.
Thank you.
