A training on the preparation of the sixth periodic report of the Republic of Uzbekistan on the fulfillment of commitments made under the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women for 55 government officials and representatives of public organizations was held in Tashkent on March 25-27, 2019. This event took place in the framework of the joint initiative of the National Human Rights Centre and UNDP project “Support  to implementation of UN Charter- based and Treaty Bodies recommendations in Uzbekistan”.

Uzbekistan acceded to the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in June 1995. Every four years, the Government submits reports to the UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) on the progress made in implementing the provisions of the Convention. After reviewing the national report, the Committee submits its concluding remarks with recommendations on the next steps necessary to improve the situation of women’s rights at the national level. In 2015, Uzbekistan received recommendations of the Committee on the latest, fifth, periodic report in which, among other things, the Committee proposes to apply recommendations to strengthen the legislative framework in the field of family relations, domestic violence, equal rights and opportunities for men and women, including collecting gender statistics in these areas as a basis for developing laws, judicial decisions and policies aimed at ensuring gender equality and improving the status of women, speeding up the process of approving draft laws on the provision of equal rights and opportunities for men and women and on combating domestic violence, as well as to ensure their full compliance with the Convention.

Director of the National Human Rights Center (NHRC) of the Republic of Uzbekistan Akmal Saidov and  Ashita Mittal, and Acting UN Resident Coordinator in Uzbekistan made a welcoming speech at the opening of the training. One of the invited experts of the training was Ms. Lia Nadaria, current member of CEDAW.

In her speech, Ashita Mittal noted that Uzbekistan reaffirmed its commitment to ensure full compliance with all its international human rights obligations by adopting the Samarkand Declaration of Human Rights, paying particular attention to the principles of equality and non-discrimination on sex or any other basis, and to take into account gender aspects in achieving the SDG and the realization of human rights.

During the three-day training with the participation of international and national experts, a number of training sessions were held on gender issues and gender stereotypes, the provisions of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the work of the UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, procedures for reporting and follow up on the recommendations of the Committee, including the collection of gender statistics and good practices in the preparation of national action plans on human rights century. During practical simulation sessions, participants developed skills in applying illustrative indicators on human rights, preparing reports, and conducted a simulative constructive dialogue on the presentation of the state delegation to the CEDAW.

One of the important issues, which has been discussed in the course of discussions between representatives of various government services and civil society, was the development of new approaches and the improvement of the existing practice for the Republic of Uzbekistan to fulfill its convention obligations and improve the situation of women’s rights in the country. The knowledge and skills gained during the training workshop will be further applied by participants in the preparation of the Sixth National Report on the implementation of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women with broad involvement of representatives of civil society, and subsequently in the development of measures to implement the new recommendations of the Committee UN following the CEDAW reporting cycle.