The 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) will be held in New York, USA, from March 11 to 22, 2024, with a focus on accelerating the achievement of gender equality, as well as empowering women and girls by fighting poverty.
Considering that over the past 5 years, the Republic of Uzbekistan has achieved many positive results in terms of achieving gender equality and empowering women, a proposal was put forward by the UN Women's Organization to hold consultations in Uzbekistan.
On February 12 of this year, in Tashkent, the Senate of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan, together with the UN Women organization, held these consultations on the topic "Empowering women and girls, as well as ensuring gender equality by solving the problem of poverty, strengthening mechanisms and gender-oriented financing."
The event was attended by parliamentarians from Central Asian states (Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan) and Azerbaijan, representatives of civil society, youth organizations and academia, gender experts, representatives of more than ten UN programs, funds and agencies, and the private sector supporting gender equality and women's economic empowerment.
Chairman of the Senate of the Oliy Majlis, the Republican Commission on Enhancing the Role of Women in Society, Gender Equality and the Family Tanzila Narbayeva sent a video message to the participants of the event:
– Today, the States of Central Asia and Azerbaijan have made great strides in protecting the rights, freedoms and interests of women, preventing violence and discrimination, as well as ensuring their participation in decision-making processes.In our countries, as a result of fundamental reforms and transformations in the field of gender equality, the necessary experience and practice have been accumulated, favorable conditions are being created for the full and equal participation of women in the social, political and economic life of the country.
We are gradually moving towards achieving the goals of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which provide for equal conditions for women and men in all spheres of life of States.For these purposes, Uzbekistan is determined to continue its efforts to fully support women in relation to their social protection activities, T. Narbayeva noted.The consultations were also attended by representatives of regional bodies and mechanisms – the UN Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia, the Women's Dialogue of Central Asian Countries and others.During the consultations, discussions were organized on such topics as the implementation of cross-sectoral cooperation in addressing poverty issues, taking into account the aspects of strengthening institutions and gender financing, eliminating delays in financing for gender equality and women's empowerment: expanding opportunities and space to influence gender equality policies and budgets.
In addition, attention is focused on countering the disproportionate burden of unpaid child care and housework: the transition to the service sector, as well as the provision of social services and social protection systems.The main purpose of these consultations is to assess the potential and capabilities of the region to achieve gender equality in Central Asia, identify priority development strategies in terms of poverty eradication, social protection and labor force activities.At the end of the consultations, a document containing a comprehensive set of messages, best practices and specific recommendations will be adopted, which will become the basis for the participation of the countries of the Central Asian region (Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan) and Azerbaijan at the 68th session of the CPJ.