Former UWI Principal elected to UN anti-discrimination committee

Emerita Professor The Most Honourable Eudine Barriteau is Barbados’ first representative on the Committee in 30 years

Former Cave Hill Campus Principal and Pro Vice-Chancellor Professor Emerita, The Most Honourable Violet Eudine Barriteau, has been appointed a member of the prestigious United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

Following the elections of the new members of the Committee for 2025 - 2028 held on June 7, 2024, at the UN Headquarters in New York, she is the current national representative for Barbados on the global 23-member body of independent experts that monitors the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

The Convention, which was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1979, aims to improve the civil and legal status of women, secure gender equality, and safeguard women’s reproductive rights.

All CARICOM countries are signatories to this Convention, which has 189 state parties. Barbados ratified the Convention in 1980 and was last represented by Norma Monica Forde who served on the Committee from 1987 to 1994.

A feminist scholar, higher education leader, activist, and political scientist, Professor Barriteau has advocated for women’s rights and gender equality for over thirty-five years. Her work has not only influenced national, regional and international organisations but has also inspired a new generation of advocates. She has researched and published extensively on women’s leadership and created outreach and academic training programmes to cultivate women’s leadership. At The UWI, she introduced and institutionalised the Caribbean Institute in Gender and Development Studies, the only one of its kind in the Commonwealth of the Caribbean for 30 years.

Professor Clive Landis who succeeded Professor Barriteau as Principal stated: “The UWI Cave Hill Campus is delighted at the appointment of former Principal, Professor The Most Honorable V. Eudine Barriteau to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. A very powerful and distinguished voice has been added in the global fight to eliminate discrimination against women and we are most proud of Professor Barriteau's accomplishments.”

Professor Barriteau retired in 2021. Her UWI career included six years as Principal and Pro Vice-Chancellor of the Cave Hill Campus, one year as Principal and Pro Vice-Chancellor of the Open Campus, six years as Deputy Principal of the Cave Hill Campus, four years as Cave Hill Campus Coordinator of Graduate Studies and Research and fifteen years as Head of the Gender and Development Unit, Nita Barrow Unit, Cave Hill Campus.

The UWI community congratulates Emerita Professor, the Most Honourable Violet Eudine Barriteau, on this significant recognition of her tireless efforts and unwavering commitment to the cause of gender equality.