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Wednesday, October 14, 2009 - 10.18 GMT |
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'We give highest priority to female migrant
workers' safety': HR Minister |
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'The
Government
considers
combating
violence
against
women
migrant
workers
to be a
high
priority...
We have
also
recently
developed
a
National
Labour
Migration
Policy,
which
inter
alia,
seeks to
protect
human
rights
of
female
migrant
workers,
said
Minister
of
Disaster
Management
and
Human
Rights
Mahinda
Samarasinghe
addressing
at the
third
Committee
of the
Advancement
of Women
at the
UN
General
Assembly
in New
York
yesterday.
Speaking
about
the
Constitution
of Sri
Lanka
the
Minister
said our
Constitution
guarantees
equal
rights
to all
irrespective
of
gender
and the
country
have
ratified
the
Convention
on the
Elimination
of all
forms of
Discrimination
Against
Women (CEDAW)
and
implemented
a
Women’s
Charter
which
embodies
the
principles
set out
in the
Convention.
Sri
Lanka
has
achieved
impressive
gains in
the
advancement
of women
and is
proud
that it
has
recently
been
ranked
36th out
of 155
countries
in terms
of the
Gender
Development
Index as
a
percentage
of the
score on
the
Human
Development
Index in
the
recently
published
UN Human
Development
Report
2009. We
have
also
been
ranked
12th in
the UN
Index on
Equal
Opportunities,
he said.
The
Minister
explaining
Sri
Lanka’s
gender
balance
said,
'An ever
increasing
number
of women
are
entering
higher
education.
The
number
of women
being
elected
to our
legislative
bodies,
to the
bench of
our
Supreme
Court
and the
Public
Service
has also
been
systematically
increased
in our
endeavor
to
reflect
gender
balance'.
He
further
said
free
health
and
education
systems
have
resulted
in the
life
expectancy
of a
woman
rising
to 79
years
and have
very low
maternal
and
infant
mortality
rates
comparable
to those
of
developed
countries.
'The
Government
has also
initiated
programmes
to
encourage
women to
generate
income
to their
families
by
developing
skills
through
numerous
training
schemes
including
self
employment
projects.
We have
also
encouraged
women to
be
entrepreneurs
and have
introduced
credit
schemes
specifically
designed
to help
rural
women to
break
out of
the
cycle of
poverty,'
Minister
Samarasinghe
said.
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