Bahamian women continue to soar to lofty heights on local and international fronts, proving their viability in making an impact on the globe.

Most recently, native daughter and attorney-at-law Marion Bethel was elected to serve on the United Nations' CEDAW Committee, which places her in a prominent position to make a difference in the lives of women all around the world. The energetic elections ended with Ms. Bethel successfully beating out a candidate from Spain, due to unwavering support from the CARICOM countries.

Ms. Bethel is a guru in social, cultural and literary circles for her numerous national contributions. She adequately laid out the history and triumphs of the Women's Suffrage Movement in the Bahamas in a detailed website:www. womensuffragebahamas.com. She is also author of the acclaimed poetry book: "Guanahani, My Love". She is not only a practicing attorney, but also a partner in her law firm along with her husband, attorney Alfred Sears. Her most recent appointment to serve for the United Nations will begin in January, 2017 and will require her to travel at least three times during the year for intense CEDAW Committee meetings, lasting three weeks at a time.

CEDAW is the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. It is an international treaty adopted in 1979 by the United Nations General Assembly. It is also an international bill of rights for women instituted on September 3, 1981 and has been ratified by 189 UN states. The Bahamas, which ratified it in 1993, is now obligated to uphold its commitments to the Convention, which seeks to protect and promote equal attainment of economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights for women.

The Ministry of Social Services and Development released its first CEDAW report in 2012. Currently, a new report is near completion for presentation to the United Nations. This most recent report will undoubtedly inform the international body about the unsuccessful referendum held in The Bahamas this past June. The rejected referendum places more pressure on the government to implement measures that would provide more equality for Bahamian women on a variety of fronts. The referendum failed on June 7, 2016 and two weeks later, Ms. Bethel was elected to CEDAW.

On July 24, she addressed the issue during a presentation to Caribbean Women Parliamentarians during the 41st Regional Conference of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association of the Caribbean, The Americas and the Atlantic Region under the theme: "Strategizing for Women's Leadership in the Caribbean Political Space".

"It is, indeed, ironic that these two events - the defeat of the gender equality Referendum and the Bahamas’ election to the CEDAW Committee, co-existed in the same political space and time," Ms. Bethel told Parliamentarians.

Reflecting on the failed gender equality referendum Ms. Bethel said: " It was shocking but not surprising that each of the Bills that advanced in its own way the two principles of gender equality and non-discrimination on the basis of sex was soundly defeated. It was shocking as even the two Bills that were slated to grant citizenship to children under the Constitution were defeated. It was not surprising that the Bahamian electorate voted against the constitutional right to citizenship of the foreign husband of a Bahamian woman. It was not surprising that Bill 4 that proposed to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, sex being defined as a female or male, was defeated."

She spoke in her capacity not only as an accomplished member of civil society, but also as one that advocated for the constitutional amendments and as the woman who must now represent her country on an international level on a Committee dedicated to ending the disparities between women and men.

CEDAW, she pointed out, brings together in one international human rights treaty, wide-ranging provisions concerning discrimination on the basis of sex. It is essentially a Bill of Rights for women, which focuses on rights in all areas of public and private life and is also an agenda for action by States to guarantee the acquisition and enjoyment of human rights by women. CEDAW as a human rights treaty has been ratified by all but four UN member States and represents wide acceptance by the international community of certain standards and norms.

The outcome of the gender equality referendum left her with these questions for national reflection: "What is the vision that we collectively have for our country in regard to the two human rights principles of equality and non-discrimination? What are the principles, values and standards that we embrace that will continue to guide us as a nation for decades to come?"

In light of the low voter turnout on June 7 (47% of the electorate) and even in light of the vote of "no" to each Bill, Ms. Bethel feels that the questions posed have yet to be adequately answered.

She further questioned: "How did we arrive at this point in our history where the two principles of equality and non-discrimination on the basis of sex were resoundingly defeated by the electorate that voted on June 7?"

"The principles or values that have made The Bahamas a self-respecting democratic country, are anchored in our historic struggle of the 40s, 50s & 60s for the right to equality, the right to non-discrimination, the right of the consent of the governed and the right to majority rule and to self-determination," she noted.

"These are the principles and values that continue to give me a sense of pride, dignity, self-respect and a profound sense of national identity; these are the principles that constitute the moral fabric of our nation."

Bahamian women, she added, must reflect on how to give an account for such a defeat when Bahamian women of the past would have fought so assiduously for their rights and created a "vibrant, dynamic and successful" Women's Suffrage Movement. Forerunners such as Mary Ingraham, Mabel Walker, Georgianna Symonette, Eugenia Lockhart, and Dame Dr. Doris Johnson among countless others advocated not only for universal suffrage, but for the right for women to stand in an election.

Bahamian women played such a crucial role in the creation of an independent Bahamas that there would have been no possibility for majority rule in 1967 or independence in 1973 without them.

"In 1961, both a colonial Parliament and a colonial Bahamian society upheld the principles of equality between women and men and non-discrimination on the basis of sex in regard to the right to vote and to stand as an electoral candidate," said Ms. Bethel.

"This was the result of decades of lobbying, demonstrating, educating and strategizing by women of the suffrage movement. This political movement offers us many lessons for mobilization, women’s agency, empowerment, voice and participation in the service of change and transformation of societal norms."

The failed referendum, then, amounts to a failure to complete unfinished business by building on the gains of the previous generation.

In strong words Ms. Bethel noted: "We have allowed the energy and dynamism of the suffrage movement to be muted and relegated to a footnote of Bahamian history at our peril. It is difficult to assess the damage to our history and ourselves when on the two occasions in an independent Bahamas, we have chosen to dishonor and demean ourselves, our history, the legacy and struggle of our maternal foreparents."

It is "deeply distressing" to her that there remains a need to make a case for Bahamian women as worthy of equal rights under our Constitution.

"It is our obligation and responsibility as women Parliamentarians and women in civil society to extend and advance the principles of equality and non-discrimination in our Constitution," Ms. Bethel told the Parliamentary group.

It may be beneficial for all Bahamians, especially women, to visit the website or purchase the DVD on the Bahamas Women's Suffrage Movement to either recall or learn of the efforts of the many Bahamian women who helped to shape the new Bahamas. Oftentimes, it is a lack of knowledge or understanding about the history of your country that hinders its progress.

Ms. Bethel is a wife and mother with a passion for her country and its people and is elated to serve on the CEDAW Committee. The Bahamas has had a long and active engagement with the United Nations in regard to the United Nations Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the specific fundamental rights and freedoms as set forth in this Declaration, the International Labor Organization Conventions, and theDeclaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples of 1960.

"It is to our advantage to know and appreciate this historical engagement as a colony as it has a direct and significant bearing on the current political and social issues that confront us today," she said.

Over the past few weeks, Ms. Bethel has been busy making a series of courtesy calls and working meetings. She met with Prime Minister Rt. Hon. Perry Christie and had working meetings with women Parliamentarians of The Bahamas. She also participated in working meetings with the National Congress of Trade Unions and the National Commission on Persons with Disabilities. Ms. Bethel paid two courtesy calls on United States Embassy officials, including the US Charge D'Affaires, Lisa Johnson and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.

In January of 2017, her work with CEDAW will begin in earnest. Prior to that, she will pay a few other courtesy calls and host more working meetings, including talks with civil society institutions and several women's associations, such as the Sister Sister Breast Cancer Support Group.