May 20, 2025 – The Nassau Guardian
Equality Bahamas & Executive Director Alicia Wallace featured in The Nassau Guardian on May 20, 2025.
From The Nassau Guardian:
“The government has its own priorities, and there has been no public pressure of consequence to cause the government to move in one direction or the other,” he told the Tribune last week.
“The women of The Bahamas have not stepped up to the plate, as educated as y’all are, and said we demand our equal rights. No, they haven’t done so, and clearly the men who are in politics are not gonna go out of their way to have you all who are better educated than we are, more prepared than we are, but of course we have this dominant role in public life, so why do you expect these men, unless you push them, to change?”
The Bahamian constitution provides that a Bahamian woman
married to a foreign spouse cannot automatically pass on citizenship to children born abroad.
It used to be understood that the constitution also prevented children born to an unmarried Bahamian man and a foreign woman from being entitled to citizenship at birth, but a landmark Privy Council decision changed that in 2023.
Prime Minister Philip Brave Davis has pledged to addressing the still-remaining inequalities through ordinary legislation — as past referendums on the issue, one in 2002 and another in 2016, both failed.
In 2023, he said his government would bring legislation to do so in 2024, but that has not yet happened.
Equality Bahamas Executive Director Alicia Wallace said yesterday that, as it relates to women’s rights and equality in The Bahamas, “unabashed ignorance continues across party lines, generations and levels of popularity and likeability”.
The organization noted that it has been advocating for equal citizenship rights for more than a decade, since the announcement in 2014 by then-Prime Minister Perry Christie of a constitutional referendum to address the issue.
Wallace said that blame has been cast on women, but it is the government’s obligation to ensure The Bahamas’ policy aligns with international human rights standards.
“Men opposed to women’s rights continue to use their positions and influence to try to make our work invisible, but our work is well-documented,” said Wallace.
“Their ignorance and disinterest does not and cannot erase or silence us.
“They erroneously suggest that it is our responsibility, as women—people experiencing discrimination and increasing levels of violence—to convince the government to make the changes necessary to advance women’s rights and move toward gender equality.
“The government is obligated to uphold human rights and to enact and amend laws and policies to align with international human rights standards.
“The men claiming women are not demanding equal rights are dishonest regarding their own objection to women’s rights and gender equality and the national consequences of their misogynistic positions.
“They hide behind falsehoods about the effort and impact of women’s rights organizations which they use to distract the public from their failures.”
Equality Bahamas said the Bahamian government has continued to fail to acknowledge its “culpability” in gender-based violence against women and “to take action to remove structural barriers to gender inequality”.
“Equality Bahamas calls on the government to engage with the women’s rights organizations and advocates with technical expertise and clear recommendations on pressing issues including gender inequality in nationality rights, marital rape, and domestic violence,” the press release said.
married to a foreign spouse cannot automatically pass on citizenship to children born abroad.
