On 11-22 March 2024, New York, United States, will host the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW68).

At the meeting, attention will be paid to the need to accelerate the achievement of gender equality, empowering women and girls through the fight against poverty.

Consultations for Central Asia and Azerbaijan within the framework of this session were held in Tashkent.

Taking into account the fact that over the past 5 years the Republic of Uzbekistan has achieved positive results in terms of gender equality, empowerment of women, a proposal was put forward to hold consultations for Central Asia and Azerbaijan in Uzbekistan.

In Tashkent, the Senate of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan, together with the UN Women, held consultations on “Empowering women and girls, as well as ensuring gender equality by addressing poverty, strengthening mechanisms and gender-oriented financing”.

The event was attended by parliamentarians from Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Azerbaijan, representatives of more than ten UN programs, funds, and agencies, and the private sector supporting gender equality and women’s economic empowerment.

The Chairperson of the Senate of the Oliy Majlis, the Republican Commission on Increasing the Role of Women in Society, Gender Equality and Family Tanzila Narbayeva sent a video message to the event participants.

She noted that Central Asia and Azerbaijan have made great strides in protecting the rights, freedoms, and interests of women, preventing violence and discrimination, and ensuring their participation in decision-making processes.

“In our countries, as a result of fundamental reforms and transformations in ensuring gender equality, the necessary experience and practice have been accumulated, favorable conditions are being created for the full and equal participation of women in public, political and economic life. We are gradually moving towards achieving the goals of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which provide for equal conditions for women and men in all sectors. Uzbekistan firmly intends to continue efforts to comprehensively support women in relation to activities for their social protection”, T. Narbayeva emphasized.

Representatives of regional bodies and mechanisms – the UN Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia, the Dialogue of Women of Central Asia and others – also took part in the consultations.

The consultations include discussions on implementing cross-sectoral collaboration to address poverty, addressing funding gaps for gender equality, women’s empowerment, and increasing opportunities and space to influence gender equality policies and budgets.

Norgul Abduraimova, UzA