Demande directe (CEACR) - adoptée 1997, publiée 86ème session CIT (1998)

The Committee notes that the Government's report has not been received. It hopes that a report will be supplied for examination by the Committee at its next session and that it will contain full information on the matters raised in its previous direct request which read as follows:

1. The Committee notes the Government's statement in its report that there are no existing laws in Jamaica which discriminate against women, and its reference to the attached National Policy Statement on Women dated July 1987. The Committee notes that the Policy Statement, although silent on the subject of laws which overtly discriminate against women, nevertheless states that legal and administrative reforms are still required to achieve adequate protection and treatment of women under the law, and that the Government will identify the areas in which reforms are required to eliminate discrimination against women in accordance with the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and implement the reforms necessary for the protection and advancement of women. The Committee asks the Government to inform it of the progress made in this regard as regards equality of opportunity and treatment between men and women in employment and occupation.

2. The Committee notes with interest the information submitted by the Government on some efforts taken to diversify occupational choice between men and women by, for example, offering a common curriculum in school grades 7 to 9, instead of the previous situation of choice from grade 7 only between industrial arts or home economics, which tended to divide the students into boys and girls, limiting their exposure to careers which did not correspond to society's preconceived expectations. It asks the Government to keep it informed of steps taken to make the new curriculum available in all schools, and any other measures taken to promote equality between men and women at all levels of educational and vocational training.

3. Noting from the Government's report that it sees a need for a Policy Statement on Women which states its objectives more precisely and provides for a machinery to translate policies more effectively into programmes, and recalling the concern expressed by the CEDAW Committee in 1988 with regard to the absence in Jamaica of any policy to guarantee effectively that a private sector employer hired without prejudice based on sex, the Committee asks the Government to inform it of any policies declared and machinery created to promote equality of opportunity between men and women.

4. The Committee had noted in previous direct requests the Government's statement that, according to national equality policy, there should be freedom of choice and equal opportunities for all in educational and vocational training, and that employers should hire people based on qualifications and not sex, race or ethnicity, class, social background or political or religious preferences. The Committee once again requests the Government to supply information on the practical application of this principle as it has on several occasions in past direct requests. This information should cover the grounds listed in Article 1, paragraph 1(a), of the Convention other than sex, with regard to equality of opportunity and treatment in:

(a) access to vocational training and higher education;

(b) access to employment and to particular occupations; and

(c) terms and conditions of employment.

5. As the Government's report is silent on enforcement and redress, the Committee is obliged to repeat its earlier request for details on any use made of article 25 of the Constitution which provides measures by which the fundamental rights enumerated in its Chapter III may be enforced by the courts and that complaints may be filed with the Ombudsman if the offending person is a government official. Observing that no information has been provided for many years under points III and IV of the report form, the Committee requests the Government to provide information on decisions, if any, taken by the courts and the Ombudsman regarding discrimination in employment and occupation.