Forgotten Lot: Women in Overseas Territories

Women in Overseas Territories (OTs) like the British Virgin Islands and the Turks and Caicos are concerned about the way their colonial status confines their involvement and ability to treat with issues that impact them directly, both at the local and international level.

Eugenia O’Neal, Head, Women’s Desk, BVI, has cited several instances where women living in OTs feel the impact of their less than equal status. Here is an overview of the situation in some of the territories.

“The constitutions of the OTs are not all alike – some grant the islands greater powers than others. If the UK is to address human rights issues effectively then it must do so in both a bilateral and multilateral way. The UK must develop an understanding of the conditions that we share and also of the ways in which country differences individualize us. A good starting point would be to realize the myriad ways in which the colonial relationship impact son women’s status in the OTs.

“For instance our colonial status constrains our participation as equals in the international sphere. As Turks and Caicos pointed out in its 1995 report on the status of women, the OTs “can only have observer status at various international for a which limits discussion f issues…from the perspective of women an men in the Turks and Caicos Islands”.

“Internally, the impact of the colonial relationship ranges from the subtle to the direct. The governors sent out by the UK have always been male which subtly reinforces stereotypes of women’s roles versus men’s roles. In a more direct way, the fact that in most, if not all the territories, the police department comes under the supervision of the Governor, not of a local authority, means that the support of a chief minister for a domestic violence initiative involving the police will not necessarily guarantee its success.

“It should be noted that any progress made so far on women’s behalf has been almost completely of local origin. It was after all, in response to local lobbying efforts that national machinery to promote the advancement of women, now exist in all of the OTs, except for Montserrat. Turks and Caicos was the last to come on stream with a Women’s Desk earlier this year.

“The British Virgin Islands has done very well, at least on paper, as it begins to address problems such as domestic violence. Since 1995, the BVI has passed the Domestic Violence (Summary Proceedings) Act, which makes it easier for applicants to get restraining, tenancy and other orders.

“Then there is the question of the trafficking in women for the sex trade. The Beijing Platform for Action notes that “the use of women in international prostitution and trafficking networks has become a major focus of international organized crime. Women are regularly brought to the Virgin Islands from the United States; the Dominican Republic and countries to perform strip shows.

“Reportedly, this also happens in the Caymans, Anguilla and the Turks and Caicos Islands. These shows are staged with the tacit consent of the authorities yet failure to put a stop to them and the prostitution that they engender is in violation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

“in a recent White Paper presented to the UK government by the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, four main areas of concern are highlighted for attention – the environment, drug trafficking, citizenship and human rights. The first two of these, particularly the second, receive considerable sums. While the third is somewhat out of OTs control, the fourth plays Cinderella to the others.”