Central Asian feminists want system change: a discussion on how to achieve gender equality
On Tuesday October 20, from 14:00-16:00 Almaty & Bishkek time, 13:00-15:00 Dushanbe, Ashgabat & Tashkent time, Central Asian women’s rights activists will come together in a virtual consultation. They will assess progress made on the commitments under the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action – the most forward-looking agenda for the rights of women and girls. What are the challenges and critical priorities? And how can we collectively advocate for systemic change and decisive action to accelerate the achievement of gender equality?
A recent report by UN-Women provides worrying evidence on the women’s rights situation in the region. Women in Kyrgyzstan are 30 times more likely to die in childbirth than women in Belarus, Italy, Norway or Poland. In Kazakhstan, the murder rate of women remains high – 2.35 victims per 100 thousand women. Significant gaps also remain in legislation and practice where, among other countries, Turkmenistan still does not have separate legislation on domestic violence or other forms of violence against women. The gender gap in the women’s labor market participation remains high in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan – 24.7 percent and 41.5 percent, respectively.
On Tuesday, feminists and women’s rights defenders from across the region will meet to discuss the challenges for women’s advancement & gender equality during the COVID-19 pandemic. We aim to find new ways to achieve systemic change for gender equality.
The meeting will be held in Russian. We invite all women’s rights activists to join the meeting and register here. Check your local time here.
Meet the moderators
Series of subregional consultations
The meeting is part of a series of consultations covering a range of topics related to women’s human rights, gender equality and the empowerment of women, and will contribute to the Generation Equality Forum, a global civil society-focused event on gender equality organized by UN Women, co-chaired by the governments of Mexico and France. Find out more on this landing page (also available in Russian). These consultations are hosted in cooperation with UN Women Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia.
Join the discussion
Tag us on Twitter @WECF_INT and Instagram @WECF_International or use the hashtags #FeministsWantSystemChange and #GenerationEquality. Check out our Trello board here.