By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

DAME Janet Bostwick was last night awarded the CARICOM Triennial Award for Women, becoming the 13th recipient to receive such a prestigious award.

She was presented with the award by Prime Minister Phillip “Brave” Davis, who is also the chairman of CARICOM, during the official opening ceremony of the 44th CARICOM Heads of Government Meeting. The event was held at Atlantis resort.

The award is bestowed every three years and honours contributions in a wide range of fields of endeavours, including agriculture, economics, law, politics, gender and development, religion, public service and trade unionism.

While giving remarks, Dame Janet expressed gratitude for the honour and thanked her relatives, close friends and former colleagues for their support.

She also extended a heartfelt thanks to former Cabinet minister Frankie Campbell and Dr Jacinta Higgs for recommending her to receive the award and also, to the CARICOM community for selecting her, adding “I am grateful.”

Dame Janet also called for women to remain focused when fighting for the rights of women, saying “it is a battle that is still too far from victory”.

“It is a battle which in my humble opinion is not receiving the acknowledgment, attention and action that is required to ensure that the injustice is eliminated,” she added.

“We cannot afford to give precedent to the rise of others if we do not first successfully address and eliminate the inequities that exist throughout our diaspora and indeed, throughout the world in respect to the rights of us women.

Dame Janet said that while much has been accomplished, more still needs to be done.

However, she noted that achieving gender inequality was not the only issue that deserved increased attention and also spoke to the threat of climate change.

“With the real threat of climate change, we must fight now for our very lives and continue the existence of our nations and women who are always the most vulnerable should lead this fight,” Dame Janet continued.

She then singled out Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, saying the Caribbean community was blessed to have her lead the fight against climate change.

“And we are so proud because she is a woman but all of us must do our part,” she also said.

“The lives of our children are at stake. We must take personal responsibility to ensure that our actions lead to the decrease of carbon emissions in our own countries and to guard against pollution of our waters by ourselves.”

Dame Janet was named the recipient for the CARICOM award in 2021.

She became politically active in 1976 as a member of the Free National Movement (FNM) and was the first woman elected to the House of Assembly.

She was also the first woman to act as Prime Minister and served as deputy to the Governor General on two occasions.

In 2019, she received her appointment as Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire at an investiture at Buckingham Palace in 2019.