|
|
Lucy Garrido
The Ministry of Women's Condition and Women's Rights, recently created by the Government of Aristide, has not got its own office yet, and operates in the offices of the Prime Minister untill its budget is approved. Anne Marie Coriolan took us to the place to meet Lise Marie Dejain, the woman who will have to walk the way from the dreams of "everything that should be done for Haitian women" to the reality of the poorest country of Latin America.
Q: Excuse me, but although I think it's logical, I also think it's incredible that this Ministry has been created at this moment. Or is it because of this moment that it was possible to create it?
A: This Ministry
is the result of the Haitian women's struggle. We struggled in 1930 for the
right of women to education, then in 1957 we won the right to vote. In 1986
the women's movement emerged once more, and with it the demands regarding the
conditions of the lives of poor women. In 1991, with the Government of Aristide,
one of the prime demands, although very controversial, was to have a ministry;
at that moment we couldn't get it. Now Aristide, as an acknowledgement to the
struggle of women, has created this Ministry.
For us, as women, it is an acknowledgement and a triumph, but it is also a stage
of development that has to do with all the changes we must accomplish. We are
a country destroyed at all levels, but fortunately, nobody has been able to
crush our wish and our will to work for changes.
Q: What will be the priorities of your work?
A: The first one is the question of justice and the compensation for those women who have suffered torture, jail and rape. Many of them were heads of their families, and their homes have been impoverished even more, their small shops closed down; another fundamental issue is to give them financial support. Another priority is literacy, 80% of women are illiterate. But if we can teach reading and writing to the women working in factories, they can teach their fellow workers and their own children; and we will not only be fighting for the right of women to read and write but also it will be a way of benefitting the whole society. Of course, we have to create hundreds of centers for mother-child nutrition and we must also especially try to foster the vocational development of young women in a country where everything still is waiting to be done.
Q: What kind of relationship will the Ministry have with women's organizations?
A: At the moment there are just a few women's organizations but I think that with the existence of the Ministry many others will be created. However the important thing is that these organizations last, with or without the Ministry. As a feminist, having a ministry means success, but it is only one step and women must understand it. It is a mutual support, essential between the Ministry and women.
Q: In Haiti, there is not an organized movement; isn't there a danger that the Ministry might take the role the movement should play and that there isn't a kind of feminist "vanguard" which pushs the Ministry to advance more and more? The Ministry is the Government.
A: That's why it is important that the organizations do not get mixed up with the Ministry. This is something which must be managed and we must be serene and in control to achieve a correct management of this issue. It is a difficult job.
Q: But there must be some women who want to work and coordinate together.
A: There are groups of women who have become aware that they need an organization and that a confederation is necessary to carry on with the women's movement. Unfortunately, these initiatives of grouping are always developed around an issue such as the Beijing Conference, for example, but later on, they disappear. I can tell you this as a feminist activist and because I come from one of the oldest groups. We tried to organize a women's platform. We started doing it, but at the moment of making definite decisions, it did not work out. There is not such a thing as a women's movement. There are groups which often have not got the will or have a weakened will for sitting together to talk about shared problems. There is not a space where we can say "we have confronted such and such problems and we have to talk about them and do something to solve them from there to be able to make decisions". Certainly, at such a moment, some women will not agree and some will continue.
Q: Are there any groups or women against the creation of the Ministry?
A: Yes, and there many who harass us. We hope this will be a push to improve our work. Personally, it represents a stimulus for me, it is good they are there, they are a thermometer, they will help me to evaluate my work.
Q: How are priorities implemented, for instance, in reference to Justice?
A: We think that a judicial reform is necessary to accomplish, thus, within the conception of the Ministry, we want to establish a National Council for Women's Rights which will take care of the legal problems we have, in reference to the Civil Code, to labour, etc. It will work on the legal aspects and on the gaps in the codes and submit proposals to fill in those gaps. And it will also revise all the existing provisions that are not being applied. First, a compilation of the provisions that are favourable or disadvantageous for women has to be made, to change them and promote their application. And moreover, to fill in the gaps, particularly those related to the violence against women, for example rape.
Q: What staff will you supervise in the Ministry?
A: At the moment we cannot recruit more than nine people, till the statute creating the Ministry is completely passed.
Q: Do you think that in the next parliamentary polls there will be many women candidates?
A: I don't think so, that's why we want to promote the participation of women since they have always been outside politics. In the Government there are three women ministers: one in Foreign Affairs, another in Finance and myself. In the previous government there was only one, in Social Welfare. These women have been recruited as professionals (that is what President Aristide has declared), they have not been considered as feminist activists.
Q: Well..., but if you have a good relationship they can collaborate and be a support at the time of discussing the policies of the Ministry, can't they?
A: We hope so.
Lucy Garrido, LOLApress Montevideo, Uruguay
Translated by Alicia Porrini and Soledad Domínguez