OSCE Centre Trains Members of Tajik Parliament to Create and Improve Gender Laws

( OSCE ) - Raising awareness of gender equality issues among members of the Tajik Parliament was the aim of a five-day OSCE-supported training course in the mountainous health resort of Khoja Obi Garm in central Tajikistan, which ended today.

The course brought together 14 representatives from various committees of the Majlisi Namoyandagon, the lower house of the Tajik Parliament. Two professors from the Russian Academy of State Service led the sessions.

Tone Tingsgaard, Special Representative on Gender Issues of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, was guest speaker at the event.

"This was the first time that we organized a training course on gender equality issues for members of the Tajik Parliament," said Graziella Piga, Manager of the Gender Programme at the OSCE Centre in Dushanbe. "Besides raising their overall gender awareness, we aimed to equip Members of Parliament (MPs) with the necessary knowledge to take gender aspects into account in the process of drafting and revising laws."

She added that the training programme illustrated how gender equality laws are implemented in other countries. After the training, participants expressed their intention to work on improving implementation mechanisms in the current Tajik legislation, ensuring equal rights and equal opportunities for men and women.

Participants of the training also attended the roundtable jointly organized by the Tajik Parliament and the OSCE Centre in Dushanbe on 22 June. During the roundtable, MPs were presented with preliminary findings of a study which aims to assess the implementation of the Tajik Law "On state guarantees and equal rights for men and women, as well as equal possibilities in their realization" since its adoption in 2005.

In her opening speech, Shujoat Khasanova, Deputy Speaker of the Parliament's lower house, emphasized: "The implementation of the Gender Equality Law requires a united effort of the Government and non-governmental actors. Only this way we can reach gender equality in practice."

The project is part of a wider OSCE strategy to support the Tajik authorities' efforts in promoting gender equality in the country.