UNITED NATIONS, New York — The twenty-first meeting of States parties to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women was held on Monday, November 9, 2020 at United Nations Headquarters in New York. The purpose of the meeting was to elect individuals to fill the 11 positions on the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women which will become vacant on December 31, 2020.
At the outset of the meeting, Michal Mlynár (Slovakia) from the Eastern European Group was elected to serve as its Chair, Kittithep Devahastin Na Ayuthai (Thailand) from the Asian Group and Joan Josep López (Andorra) from the Western European and Others Group were elected Vice-Chairs.
According to the United Nations website, the individuals elected to fill the 11 positions include Marion Bethel, Bahamian Attorney, Social Activist & Writer, who was endorsed by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).
The other persons elected are: Nicole AMELINE, France; Leticia BONIFAZ ALFONZO, Mexico; Corinne DETTMEIJER-VERMEULEN, The Netherlands; Hilary GBEDEMAH, Ghana; Nahla HAIDAR, Lebanon; Dalia LEINARTE, Lithuania; Rosario G. MANALO, Philippines; Bandana RANA, Nepal; Natasha STOTT DESPOJA, Australia; and Jie XIA, China.
Marion Bethel’s decades-long advocacy for the rights of Bahamian women and girls spans the areas of human rights law, education, creative writing and film. Born and raised in Nassau, Bahamas, she is currently a Partner and an Attorney-at-law with her husband at their law firm, Sears & Co., in The Bahamas
Marion was awarded a Bachelor and Masters of Arts in Law from Cambridge University, and has been a practicing attorney since 1986.
In 2013, Ms. Bethel produced and directed a documentary entitled Womanish Ways: Freedom, Human Rights & Democracy, The Women’s Suffrage Movement in the Bahamas – 1948-1962, which examines the struggle for Bahamian women’s suffrage. Marion has also published two collections of poetry, and is currently working on a third manuscript of poetry and a memoir.
In 2016, she was nominated by The Bahamas and elected by the United Nations States Parties to serve as an international expert on the UN Committee of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAWd).
She is a 1997 Alice Proskauer Poetry Fellow at the Mary Ingraham Bunting Institute of Radcliffe College at Harvard University. Her work has been featured at the 3rd Congress of Caribbean Writers, Cave Canem, and international poetry festivals throughout the Caribbean and the Americas. Her debut film, Womanish Ways, has also been widely screened throughout the Caribbean and across the United States at documentary film festivals, cultural centers, and universities.
