Gender Equality, Gender Relations and the Position of Women in Suriname

238 Pages·2011·3.31 MB·English

Gender Equality, Gender
Relations and the Position of
Women in Suriname
A Situation Analysis

Final report submitted to the National Bureau Gender Policy

Paramaribo
February 2011
Marieke Heemskerk & Ine Apapoe

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Table of contents

Table of contents ........................................................................................................ 1
List of Abbreviations ................................................................................................. 8
Summary .................................................................................................................. 15
1. Introduction .................................................................................................... 21
2. Background .................................................................................................... 23
2.1 Suriname ................................................................................................................... 23
2.2 Gender ...................................................................................................................... 24
2.3 The Suriname government and gender .................................................................... 25
2.4 The National Bureau for Gender Policy .................................................................... 25
2.5 Involvement of boys and men in gender equality .................................................... 26
2.6 Gender equality and boys and men in Suriname ..................................................... 27
3. Methods ......................................................................................................... 28
3.1 The assignment ......................................................................................................... 28
3.2 The research team .................................................................................................... 28
3.3. Data collection and reporting ................................................................................... 28
3.4 Assumptions ............................................................................................................. 29
3.5 Challenges and limitations ........................................................................................ 29
4 Power & Decision-making ............................................................................ 31
4.1 Political Administrative Representation ................................................................... 31
4.2 Women in Political Administrative Bodies ............................................................... 32
4.2.1 Increasing the number of women in political administrative bodies .................. 32
4.2.2 Women representatives in the National Assembly ............................................. 33
4.3 Women in Government ............................................................................................ 35
4.4 Women in Government Service ............................................................................... 36
4.4.1 Civil Servants ........................................................................................................ 36
4.4.2 District government ............................................................................................. 36
4.4.3 Highest Authorities of State ................................................................................ 37
4.4.4 The Court of Justice ............................................................................................. 38
4.4.4 International representation .............................................................................. 38
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4.5 Leadership & Decision Making ................................................................................. 40
4.6 Constraining factors .................................................................................................. 41
5 Education ....................................................................................................... 44
5.1 Education general ..................................................................................................... 44
5.1.1. Education For All ................................................................................................ 44
5.1.2. The Suriname Educational System ...................................................................... 45
5.1.3. Government expenditures on education ............................................................ 46
5.2. Literacy and educational achievement ..................................................................... 47
5.2.1 Literacy ................................................................................................................. 47
5.2.2 Educational levels ................................................................................................ 48
5.2.3 Adult education.................................................................................................... 48
5.3. Early Child Development .......................................................................................... 50
5.4. Girls and Boys in Primary School .............................................................................. 53
5.5 Repeating and drop-out ........................................................................................... 57
5.6 The Boys Problem ..................................................................................................... 59
5.6.1. Secondary Education Junior level (VOJ) .................................................................. 59
5.6.2. Continued Education at a Senior Level (VOS) ........................................................ 60
5.7 Education on the interior .......................................................................................... 64
5.8. Study facilities ........................................................................................................... 65
5.8.1. Pupil Teacher ratio ............................................................................................... 65
5.8.2. Gender in het curriculum ........................................................................................ 67
5.8.3. Study allowances ................................................................................................... 69
5.9. Government educational policy and gender ............................................................ 72
6. Institutional mechanisms for the improvement of the position of women .... 74
6.1 Government policy with regard to gender ............................................................... 74
6.1.1 Ministry of Domestic Affairs ................................................................................ 75
6.1.2 National Bureau Gender policy (NBG) ................................................................. 75
6.1.3 Integral Gender Action Plan (IGAP) ...................................................................... 75
6.1.4 Commission Gender Regulation (CG) .................................................................. 77
6.1.5 Institutional strengthening NBG ........................................................................... 78
6.1.6 Gender Focal Points (GFPs) .................................................................................. 79
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6.1.7 EC/UN Partnership on Gender Equality for Development and Peace ................. 80
6.1.8 Gender Database System (GDS) ........................................................................... 81
6.2 NGO’s ........................................................................................................................ 81
6.2.1 Foundation Man Mit man .................................................................................... 81
6.2.2 Women Rights Centre, training. .......................................................................... 82
6.2.3 Platform of NGOs for Women, Gender and Development .................................. 82
6.2.4 Women Parliament Forum (Vrouwen Parlement Forum) ................................... 82
6.3 Institute for Women, gender and Development Studies (IWGDS) ........................... 82
6.4 Instruments for the improvement of the position of women .................................. 83
6.4.1 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
(CEDAW) ........................................................................................................................ 84
6.4.2 The Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication
of Violence against Women (Treaty of “Belem do Para”) ............................................. 85
6.4.3 Other treaties ....................................................................................................... 86
6.5 Developments concerning gender ............................................................................ 87
6.6 Collecting gender segregated data ........................................................................... 78
7. Media ............................................................................................................. 79
7.1 Media Council ........................................................................................................... 79
7.2 Media in Suriname .................................................................................................... 80
7.2.1 Television stations ............................................................................................... 81
7.2.2 Newspapers ......................................................................................................... 82
7.2.3 Radio stations ...................................................................................................... 82
7.3 Gender and the Suriname media .............................................................................. 83
8. Domestic Violence ......................................................................................... 84
8.1 Act Fighting Domestic Violence ................................................................................ 85
8.1.1 Femicide ............................................................................................................... 89
8.1.2 Sexual Harassment ............................................................................................... 90
8.1.3 Sexual harassment at the workplace ................................................................... 91
8.1.4 Violence committed by the State ........................................................................ 92
8.2 Domestic Violence Policy .......................................................................................... 92
8.2.1 The Government and Domestic Violence ............................................................ 92
8.3 Policy on Domestic Violence ..................................................................................... 94
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8.4 Approach on Domestic Violence .............................................................................. 95
8.4.1 Police Corps Suriname ......................................................................................... 95
8.4.2 Domestic Violence Training for KPS ..................................................................... 96
8.4.3 Youth Department; Transit Centre OPA DOELI .................................................... 98
8.4.4 The court ........................................................................................................... 101
8.4.5 Bureau Victim Support ....................................................................................... 102
8.4.6 Shelter for victims of domestic violence ............................................................ 102
8.4.7 Foundation Stop Violence .................................................................................. 102
8.4.8 Women's Rights Centre ..................................................................................... 103
8.4.9 Foundation Ilse-Henar Hewitt ............................................................................ 103
8.4.10 STICRIS .............................................................................................................. 104
8.4.11 Education and Domestic Violence, Basic life skills ........................................... 104
8.5 Domestic violence in the Interior ........................................................................... 105
8.6 Data collection Domestic Violence ......................................................................... 105
9. Trafficking ...................................................................................................107
9.1. Forms of trafficking ................................................................................................. 107
9.2 Trafficking in practice ............................................................................................. 108
9.2.1. Stages of Trafficking .......................................................................................... 108
9.3 Palermo Convention on human trafficking ............................................................ 109
9.4 Suriname and trafficking ......................................................................................... 110
9.4.1 Trafficking rankings concerning Suriname ......................................................... 110
9.4.2 National legislation ............................................................................................ 111
9.4.3. National plan to combat trafficking .................................................................. 111
9.5 International and regional cooperation ................................................................. 113
9.6 Achievements Tip Unit concerning Human Trafficking .......................................... 114
10. Poverty .........................................................................................................116
10.1 National vision on poverty ...................................................................................... 116
10.2 International measurement of poverty ................................................................. 118
10.3 Poverty Index ......................................................................................................... 119
10.4 Gender-related development index (GDI) ............................................................. 120
10.5 Measuring Poverty in Suriname ............................................................................ 120
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10.6 Policy on Poverty and Gender ................................................................................ 121
10.6.1 Women in the MOP ......................................................................................... 121
10.6.2 Specific measures regarding Poverty reduction ............................................. 121
10.7 Social security provisions ........................................................................................ 122
10.7.1 General old age benefits (AOV) ....................................................................... 123
10.7.2 General Child Benefits (AKB) ............................................................................ 123
10.7.3 Welfare Benefits .............................................................................................. 125
10.7.4 Free medical care (VGH) .................................................................................. 126
10.8 School clothing & subsidies to children's homes ................................................... 128
10.9 A closer look at Social Benefits .............................................................................. 129
10.10 Additional aid .......................................................................................................... 130
10.11 Malnutrition ........................................................................................................... 130
11. Economy ......................................................................................................132
11.1 Overview of the Suriname Economy ...................................................................... 132
11.2 Consumer Price Index (CPI).................................................................................... 134
11.3 Economic situation of men and women .................................................................. 134
11.4 Economic situation of men and women in the interior ......................................... 134
11.5 Labour market ....................................................................................................... 135
11.5.1 Positions of women on the labour market ...................................................... 135
11.6 Employed population ............................................................................................. 136
11.7 Job-seekers and placement .................................................................................... 138
11.8 Unemployment ...................................................................................................... 139
11.9 Income ................................................................................................................... 141
11.10 Access to credit ....................................................................................................... 141
11.11 Child day care ......................................................................................................... 142
12 Natural Environment ...................................................................................143
12.1 Logging ................................................................................................................... 143
12.2 Mining .................................................................................................................... 144
12.2.1 Large-scale mining ............................................................................................ 145
12.2.2 Small-scale mining ............................................................................................ 146
12.2.3 Mercury pollution ............................................................................................ 146
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12.2.4 Water pollution ................................................................................................. 148
12.3 National Action Plans ............................................................................................. 148
12.4 The flood of 2006 ................................................................................................... 149
13 Health ...........................................................................................................151
13.1 Health general........................................................................................................ 151
13.1.1. Public expenditures on health ....................................................................... 151
13.1.2. Health Insurance ............................................................................................ 152
13.1.3 Main problems in health care ......................................................................... 153
13.2 Birth, Life Expectancies, and Death ...................................................................... 153
13.2.1. Sex ratio .......................................................................................................... 153
13.2.2. Life expectancies and death .......................................................................... 154
13.2.3. Causes of death .............................................................................................. 156
13.2.4 Suicide ............................................................................................................... 157
13.3 Important diseases, prevention and treatment .................................................... 158
13.3.1. Vaccination ..................................................................................................... 158
13.3.2. Diarrhoea ....................................................................................................... 159
13.3.3. Malaria ........................................................................................................... 160
13.3.4. Tuberculoses .................................................................................................. 162
13.4 Sexual and reproductive health ............................................................................. 163
13.4.1. Maternal mortality ........................................................................................... 163
13.4.2 Fertility rate ...................................................................................................... 165
13.4.3. Teen pregnancy ................................................................................................ 168
13.4.4. Contraceptive prevalence ................................................................................ 171
13.4.5. Family planning ............................................................................................... 175
13.4.6. Abortions ......................................................................................................... 177
13.4.7. Maternity leave ............................................................................................... 180
13.5 HIV/AIDS ................................................................................................................ 181
13.5.1. HIV Prevalence ............................................................................................... 181
13.5.2. Knowledge about HIV/AIDS ........................................................................... 184
13.5.3. HIV/AIDS at the work place ............................................................................ 185
13.5.4. HIV/AIDS policy and prevention .................................................................... 185
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14 Conclusions .................................................................................................187
15 Recommendations .......................................................................................190
15.1 Policy and activities of the government and NGOs ............................................... 190
15.2 Research and data collection and registration ...................................................... 193
16. Sources .........................................................................................................196
16.1 Literature ................................................................................................................ 196
16.2 Websites ................................................................................................................. 202
Annex 1 List of consulted persons and organizations ......................................................................... 203
Annex 2 Number of VOS-students by Sex, Academic year 2007-8 ..................................................... 207
Annex 3. ADEKUS Students 2009–2010 ............................................................................................... 208
Annex 4. Number of Adult students by school, class, sex and average age, 2009-2010 ..................... 209
Annex 5 Media Companies .................................................................................................................. 210
Annex 6 Social map victim support Domestic Violence ...................................................................... 211
Annex 7 Responsible ministries in collaborative covenant Domestic Violence .................................. 213
Annex 8 Law on Human Trafficking, 6 April 2006 ............................................................................... 214
Annex 9 Results from the TIP unit and its operations (2005-2007) .................................................... 218
Annex 10 Constitution of Suriname: Articles 26, 27 & 28 ..................................................................... 221
Annex 11 List of Figures ......................................................................................................................... 223
Annex 12 List of Tables .......................................................................................................................... 225

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List of Abbreviations
AB C Ampie‘s Broadcasting Corporation
ABOP Algemene Bevrijdings- en Ontwikkelings Partij (Party for Liberty and
Development)
ABS Algemeen Bureau voor de Statistiek (General Bureau of Statistics)
ADEK Anton de Kom Universiteit (Anton de Kom University)
ADEKUS Anton de Kom Universiteit van Suriname (Anton de Kom University of
Suriname)
AHKCO Academie voor Hoger Kunst en Cultuur Onderwijs (Academy for Higher
Arts and Culture Education)
AIDS Acquired immune deficiency syndrome
AKB Algemene Kinderbijslag (General Child Benefits)
ALCOA ALuminum Company Of America
AMTO Avond Middelbaar Technisch Onderwijs (Evening Middle Technical
Education)
AOV Algemene Oudedags Voorziening (General Old-Age Pensions)
API Annual Parasite Incidence
ARV Anti-Retrovirale
ASER Age Specific Enrolment Ratio
AVROS Algemene Vereniging Radio Omroep Suriname (General Society Radio
Broadcasting Suriname)
ATM Ministerie van Arbeid, Technologische Ontwikkeling en Milieu (Ministry
of Labour, Technological Development, and Environment)
ATV Algemene Televisie Verzorging (General Television Provision)
AUSV Algemene Uitbetaling Sociale Voorzieningen (General Payment Social
Benefits)
AZV Algemene Ziektekosten Verzekering (General Health Insurance)
BEP Broederschap in Eenheid Partij (Brotherhood in Unity Party)
BEIP Basic Education Improvement Project
BIZA Ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken (Ministry of Domestic Affairs)
BLS Basic Life Skills
BOG Bureau Openbare Gezondheidszorg (Bureau public Health care)
BOS Bureau Onderwijs en Studiefaciliteiten (Bureau Education and Study
Facilities)
BuFaZ Bureau Familierechtelijke Zaken (Bureay Family Legal Affairs)
BUZA Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken (Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
CARICOM Caribbean Community (and Common Market)
CBB Centrale Begrotings Boekhouding (Central Budgetary Account)
CBB Centraal Bureau Burgerzaken (Central Bureau Civil Affairs)
CBD Convention on Biological Diversity
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CCPAP Common Country Program Action Plan
CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against
Women
CELOS Centrum voor Landbouw Onderzoek in Suriname (Centrum for
Agricultural Research in Suriname)
CEO Chief Executive Officers
CG Commissie Genderregelgeving (Commission Gender Regulation)
COVAB Centrale opleiding voor Verpleegkundigen en beoefenaren van
Aanverwante Beroepen (Central college for Nursing and Related
Professions)
CPI Centrale Penitentiaire Inrichting (Central Penitentiary Institution)
CPS Contraceptive Prevalence Survey
CSW Commerciële sekswerker (Commercial Sex Worker)
DA‘91 Democratisch Alternatief (Democratic Alternative)
DC District Commissaris (District Commissioner)
DCIV Dienst Criminele Informatie Verzorging (Service Criminal Information
Provision)
DNA De Nationale Assemblee (The National Assemblee)
DR Districtsraad (District Council)
EBG Evangelische Broedergemeenschap (Evangelical Brotherhood)
EBO Eenvoudig Beroeps Onderwijs (Elementary Professional Education)
EFA Education For All
EOV Elementair Onderwijs Voor Volwassenen (Elementary Education for
Adults)
ETO Eenvoudig Technisch Onderwijs (Elementary Technical Education)
ETS Eenvoudige Technische School (Elementary Technical School)
ENO Eenvoudig Nijverheidsonderwijs (Elementary Industrial Education)
FISO Functie Informatiesysteem Overheid (Function informtion System
Government)
FMZ Forensisch Maatschappelijke Zorg (Forensic Social Care)
FTW Faculteit Technologische Wetenschappen (Faculty Technological
Sciences)
GK Gezondheidskaart (Health Card)
GDI Gender Development Index
GDP Gross Domestic Product
GER Gross Enrolment Rate
GFR General Fertility Rate
GLO Gewoon Lager Onderwijs (General Elementary School)
GNP Gross National Product
GPI Gender Parity Index
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