The joint project of the Women’s Committee of Uzbekistan and UNDP “Legislative and Institutional Capacity Development for Women’s Empowerment in Uzbekistan” organized the course. The project goals are to support and build the capacity of the government, civil society and mass media in reducing the gender gaps via raising awareness of and implementing the recommendations of the UN CEDAW Committee to Uzbekistan. It is envisaged to achieve the goal via building the capacity of researchers, improving their professionalism in conducting of scientific and sociological research on gender issues.

The course aims to promote research on the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and women’s rights issues. About 25 specialists, post-graduate students and sociologists, engaged in scientific and sociological researches, took part in the work of the course.

This course was launched with the training in November and followed by three-month distance course, which was held from December 2007 to February 2008. The results of the course was summed up at the concluding meeting in Samarkand.

During the distance course, the participants got familiarized with various aspects of women’s rights protection, including gender equality, respective legislation, issues of violence against women, research methodologies, preparation of reports and others.

The course was delivered by Ms. Marianna Muravyeva who holds a Ph.D. in History of Family Law from Saint Petersburg State University. She is associate professor in Law and Political and Legal Theories of Herzen State Pedagogical University. Ms. Muravyeva is the author of various publications on crime and sexual violence, marriage and family, gender issues and others.

At the concluding meeting, the participants discussed preparation of reports to various UN bodies, including to the CEDAW Committee, structure of the reports, research on gender issues, etc. The participants also presented their projects, which they prepared during the distance course. The best works will be published in special publication.

Ms Malika Inakova, project manager of “The Legislative and Institutional Capacity Development for Women’s Empowerment in Uzbekistan”, said: “During the course, the participants improved skills and knowledge in qualitative and comprehensive research of problems, connected with the position of women in Uzbekistan. It also helped to create strong scientists’ network, who will communicate and conduct studies in gender issues.”

She said she hoped the network will help to strengthen the scientific base [in the country] and propose concrete measures to improve legislation and show that the improvement of the society is connected with the well-being and the prosperity of women

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.