[women-rights] Tajikistan: Draft law on gender equality discussed at OSCE roundtable

DUSHANBE, 10 March 2003 - Participants in an OSCE roundtable in Dushanbe 
welcomed the initiative of the Tajik Government to draft a law on gender 
equality.

"This roundtable proves that the Government is seriously directing its 
attention to improving legal provisions," said Ambassador Marc Gilbert, the 
Head of the OSCE Centre in Dushanbe, at the opening of the roundtable.

Organized by the OSCE Centre in co-operation with the Tajik Parliament, the 
event last Friday was financially supported by the United Nations 
Population Fund and the Government of Switzerland. The co-operation aims at 
assisting the government of Tajikistan in the drafting process of this 
human rights provision.

Ms. Rano Samieva, member of the Lower Chamber of the Tajik Parliament and 
initiator of the draft law, informed the participants about the drafting 
process and key issues of the law.

"It was not easy to convince even some of our parliamentarians that there 
is a real need for adopting such a law in Tajikistan. It is true that our 
President issued decrees for improving gender equality, but it is also 
necessary to put them into a legal frame," she said.

"The Committee on Women's Affairs under the Presidential Office is also in 
the process of drafting an alternative law on gender equality," said Ms. 
Latofat Nasriddinova, the Chairwoman of the Committee. "We all are 
interested in improving the situation for women in Tajikistan and therefore 
need to adopt a law that will be effective for centuries."

Ms. Shanthi Dairiam, Director of the International Women's Rights Action 
Watch - Asia Pacific, reviewed the current draft law and provided comments 
on the law's content and goals for discussion. Recommendations in key areas 
included the necessity to broaden the definition of discrimination in order 
to include indirect discrimination; the suggestion to embrace a mechanism 
for remedying individual cases, as well as a proactive obligation to reduce 
a discriminatory environment; the recommendation to broaden the scope of 
liability and to vest key institutions (such as the human rights commission 
and the women's committee) with broader powers for monitoring and 
implementing the law.

Non-governmental organizations were particularly sensitive about the 
proposed implementation mechanism and about the inadequacy of specific 
temporary provisions such as a quota for political representation of women. 
It was pointed out that the Tajik Government, being a state party to the 
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women 
(CEDAW), has a responsibility to eliminate de-facto discrimination by 
enacting temporary special measures.

For further information, please contact:
OSCE Centre in Dushanbe 		
12, Zikrullo Khojaev Str. 		
Dushanbe 		
Tajikistan 		
Tel.: +992 372 21 40 63/+992 372 24 33 38
Fax: +992 372 24 91 59
E-mail: office@osce.tojikiston.com


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