Eudine Barriteau Elected to UN Committee on Elimination of Discrimination against Women

Barbados’ candidate for membership to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), Professor Emerita Eudine Barriteau, was elected Friday in a vote at the United Nations (UN) in New York.

Professor Barriteau is a former principal of the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies and a world-renowned academic and feminist scholar who was endorsed by CARICOM. She will serve on the Committee from 2025 until 2028.

Reflecting upon her election, Barriteau said: “I am humbled and honoured to be elected to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. This election is testament to the high regard in which Barbados is viewed on the world stage. Barbados and the Caribbean region can be assured that I will continue to devote all my energies to protecting and defending the rights of women everywhere there is a need.”

The CEDAW is a 23-member body of independent experts on women’s rights from across the globe that monitors the implementation of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. The aims of the Convention include the improvement of the civil and legal status of women, securing gender equality and safeguarding human reproduction.

All CARICOM countries are signatories to the Convention which has a total 189 states parties. Barbados ratified the Convention in 1980 and was last represented on the Committee by the jurist Norma Monica Forde from 1987 to 1994. (PR)