WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Jacqui Quinn-Leandro, Antigua and Barbuda’s Minister of Labor, Public Administration and Empowerment, has begun a two-year term as President of the Inter-American Commission of Women following her election by the member delegations of the Organization of American States.
Minister Quinn-Leandro, whose government portfolio includes gender affairs, was elected this month during the Inter-American Commission’s 33rd Assembly of Delegates in San Salvador, El Salvador.
Surveying how the hemispheric agency has evolved, the new CIM President noted that it was established to champion women’s civil and political rights. “Today, some 78 years later,” she added, “Women from across the length and breadth of Latin America and the Caribbean now have political rights. They can vote and they can run for the highest offices in government.”
She warned, however, that “even though we have made significant strides in women’s representation, there is still discrimination against women where these rights are concerned.”
Democracy without gender equity is “half-baked” democracy, said Dr. Quinn-Leandro, quoting remarks by OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza to the CIM inauguration. She pledged to devote all her “experience, skills, talents and God-given abilities to serving with distinction and to advancing the objectives of this noble organization.”
Quinn-Leandro is an alumnus of the Holy Trinity School, Five Islands Primary School, Pilgrim High School, Ottos Comprehensive and The Antigua Girl's High School. She has earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Arts and Mass Communication (First Class Honors) at the University of the West Indies, A Masters Degree in Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Cambridge University (England) and a Doctor of Philosophy in Communications from Mc Gill University (Canada).
She is a former news anchor and talk show host at ABS Television and was the human resource and marketing officer at the Antigua Barbuda Investment Bank, a Communications Consultant at the Caribbean Family Planning Affiliation and the Corporate Communications Consultant for the Antigua Commercial Bank, Hadeed Corporate Group.
Quinn-Leandro is also a member of the Rotary Club of Antigua, Carimac Alumni Association and the University of Cambridge Alumni.
