DUSHANBE, September 18, 2013, Asia-Plus — A two-day training/mock session aimed to for the Government delegation to help it to prepare to attend the Convention on the Elimination f All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) session, present its report, and engage in dialogue with the CEDAW Committee is concluding in Dushanbe today.
The event is organized by UN Women Office in Tajikistan with the support from the Office of UN RC, UNICEF, UNFPA, WHO and SDC/PDV in partnership with the Committee on Women and Family Affairs under the Government of Tajikistan.
According to UN Women Office in Tajikistan, the first day of the event was conducted in a form of a capacity building exercise, which aims to enhance the understanding of state partners-members of the delegation, National Human Rights Institutions, NGOs involved in the preparation of alternative reports and UN Country team on the CEDAW implementation, monitoring and reporting.
Today, members of the state delegation and NGOs are reportedly having a real time dry-run of what will take place when the delegation reaches Geneva, in October 2013. An acting member of CEDAW Committee, Ms. Violeta Neubauer, is in Dushanbe to facilitate the mock session.
The members of the delegation are making presentations and answering questions as they would in the actual CEDAW session. As a capacity building tool, the mock session combines the benefits of live theatre and learning by doing, and it will make strategic use of the heightened political attention that is stimulated by an impending presentation at a global forum, and by the visit to the country of international human rights expert. At the end of the mock session, Ms. Neubauer, will advise the members of the delegation on the strengths and weaknesses of their performance and of measures that should be taken to ensure their upcoming dialogue with the Committee will be successful.
The mock session also provides the opportunity for more general learning on CEDAW for the Government representatives and UN staff, incorporating lectures and discussions on a range of women’s human rights issues. Both the training and mock sessions will be attended by high level government representatives across ministries and parliament, the leaders of women’s civil society organizations, the national human rights institutions and UN agencies representatives. At the end of mock session the members of the state delegation, NGOs representative and UN Country Team will have a press-briefing to provide more detail on the outcomes of the event to the media.
The Government of Tajikistan ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women on June 26, 1993, since then CEDAW and other international human rights treaties ratified by the Government have become an integral part of the legal system of the Republic (as per article 10 of the Constitution).
This year, on June 26, Tajikistan has also marked the 20 years anniversary of CEDAW ratification. During this period the Government has undertaken concrete actions to ensure gender equality and eliminate discrimination against women. Tajikistan has submitted two reports to the CEDAW Committee in 2005 (initial report and second and third periodic reports/all combined in one) and in 2010 (fourth and fifth periodic report/combined in one).
CEDAW Committee will have dialogue with State parties, including Tajikistan delegation, during the 56th session which will be held from September 30 to October 18, 2013 in Geneva. The CEDAW Committee was provided with five reports from the country: a national one for the Government, NGOs consolidated shadow report; separate NGOs’ thematic submissions on HIV/AIDS, female migration and the implementation of Article 9 of the Convention.
