The event was organized within the joint project of UNDP and the Women’s Committee of Uzbekistan “Legislative and Institutional Capacity Development for Women’s Empowerment in Uzbekistan”. The project is directed at supporting and building the capacity of the government, civil society and mass media in reducing gender gaps via raising awareness of and implementing the recommendations of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW Committee) to Uzbekistan.

The workshop was aimed at training the representatives of the above-mentioned organizations to prepare and to submit the necessary agency information on the implementation of the CEDAW to the working group, which will further process it and compile into a national report. They also got acquainted with international standards of the preparation of national reports to the CEDAW Committee. In addition, the participants considered drafting and adoption of new laws, which the CEDAW Committee recommended to introduce in the country, such as the law on equal rights and opportunities for women and men.

The CEDAW Convention adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly, is an international document on the rights of women. Uzbekistan was the first Central Asian country to ratify the convention in 1995 and has reported twice to the CEDAW Committee on its implementation. The country will present its next report in August 2008.

Aziza Umarova, head of the Good Governance Unit of UNDP Uzbekistan, noting importance of the national report, said it would cover and present efforts of Uzbekistan in the realization of the CEDAW [in the country] to the international community.

She said: “Probably, we have a lot to tell and show in Uzbekistan, but sometimes we are not able to correctly present and deliver the necessary information. The main part of today’s workshop focuses on this topic - how to draft national reports on the UN conventions inline with international standards, particularly CEDAW.”