By Sue-Ann Wayow
AS International Women’s Day is celebrated today (Wednesday March 8, 2023) the Equal Opportunity Commission (EOC) joins the nation and the world in commemorating the event.
Embracing equity for all especially in the technological era, the EOC stated that this year’s campaign aligned directly with the EOC’s viewpoint that equal opportunity as a target is insufficient to treat with a range of human rights issues.
“It is the reason that one of the major goals of the Commission is to transform the EOC to become the National Human Rights institution (NHRI) of Trinidad and Tobago. The institution is well positioned as the only state-designated agency with a specific mandate to promote and address the rights of individuals beyond the current sphere of the Equal Opportunity Act,” the EOC stated in a press release on Tuesday.
The primary task of the EOC is to oversee implementation of the Equal Opportunity Act Chapter 22:03, which prohibits certain kinds of discrimination and seeks to promote equal opportunity between persons of different status. The Act is concerned with discrimination in four broad categories – employment, education, provision of goods and services and provision of accommodation.
Currently, the EOC stated that it takes a proactive approach in educating the public and raising awareness on sex equity and generally, their rights according to the Equal Opportunity Act.
As the leading state advocate on equality, the EOC said that it welcomed with great enthusiasm, the judgement handed down by the Appeal Court in April 2022, which clarified that sexual harassment was a form of sex-based discrimination, making sexual harassment part of the remit of the Equal Opportunity Act.
The EOC lauded some of the nation’s top women including Kamla Persad-Bissessar, the first female prime minister, Christine Kangaloo who is set to become Trinidad and Tobago’s second female president following Paula-Mae Weekes and Professor Rose-Marie Belle Antoine Pro Vice-Chancellor and Principal for the St Augustine Campus of The University of the West Indies.
The Commission stated, “It has been just over a century that women were allowed the right to obtain a university degree or the right to sit in Parliament. Since then, the nation and the Caribbean have produced impactful and brilliant female scholars who have all made significant contributions in their respective fields.”
It added, “In the sphere of arts and culture, we have female powerhouses that contribute their talents to soca, calypso, film, drama and mas-making. The fight for equality bore much fruit but the journey is far from over. Let us continue, women and men, to take action and embrace equity.”
For more information on the EOC and its services, persons can visit their website at www.equalopportunity.gov.tt.
