DUSHANBE, July 1, 2009, Asia-Plus — The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (MEDT) yesterday hosted public hearings on gender equality in the socioeconomic sphere.
The event formally titled “Equality Between Men and Women in Socioeconomic Sphere: De-jure and De-facto” was staged by the Committee for Family and Women’s Affairs in cooperation with the Coalition of NGOs “From Legal Equality to Factual Equality” under support of the Tajik Branch of Open Society Institute/ Assistance Foundation (OSI/AF-Tajikistan) and the UNIFEM “Strengthening of Economic Security for Rural Women in Tajikistan” Project.
Representatives of government bodies, international organizations, media, female heads of farming units, and businesswomen participated in the public hearings.
Speaking in an interview with Asia-plus, the Coalition of NGOs “From Legal Equality to Factual Equality” chairperson, Ms. Tatiana Bozrikova, said that the main objective of the public hearings was to discuss the process of implementation of the country’s law on state guarantees on equal opportunities for men and women, especially its part concerning equal access to economic resources of societies, including real estate and movable property, financial instruments, and loans, as well as to consider main problems and obstacles on the way of providing actual equality between men and women in Tajikistan.
During the meeting, it was noted that the law had laid legal foundation of providing legal and factual equality between men and women.
“However, analysis of the present situation regarding gender relations in the socioeconomic sphere shows that the law’s provisions still have weak influence on the provision of actual equality between men and women,” said Ms. Bozrikova, “Compared to men, women in Tajikistan still have limited access to economic resources, have less control of cultivated land and do not have proper access to decision-making processes, loans, distribution of financial benefits of harvests, etc.”
The hearings ended with adoption of a resolution proposing creation of mechanisms of carrying out gender examination of the key laws before submission of them for consideration to the government and parliament. It is suggested that a permanent expert group for gender examination of laws should be set up at the Committee for Family and Women’s Affairs or at Parliament. To provide factual equality between men and women the resolution also recommends establishing the sub-division for protection of rights of women at the Tajik human rights commissioner office and carrying out permanent monitoring and assessment of implementation of the gender policy.
