Training in Bishkek on women’s and children’s rights
In the second week of April, fifteen activists from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan met in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, for a training of trainers on a rights based approach to social policies relevant to women and children. The training was held in the context of the project: ‘Countering discrimination of women and children and promoting their rights by changing social and economic policies in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan’. This project aims to introduce rights-based approaches in policymaking through capacity enhancement of organizations in all three countries. The project is supported through the Human Rights Fund by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The project wants to strengthen organizations to use a rights-based approach in analyzing policies and legislation. Each organizations chooses a specific right from one of the key UN Conventions from the perspective of women’s en children’s rights. In each country a different right has been chosen. For each country the level of implementation of this right is being analysed by looking at policies and legislation, and most crucially, by looking at implementation. The organizations from Tajikistan have, for example, assessed sexual reproductive and health rights in Tajikistan, while the organizations from Kyrgyzstan assessed art. 10 of the Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, covering i.a. the rights to not be force into marriage and to protect children from economic or social exploitation, including setting a minimum age of employment and barring children from dangerous and harmful occupations
Based on this analysis the organizations have started advocating for specific changes in policies and legislation and creating awareness about the lack of implementation of existing policies and legislation. This has proven to be extremely successful already. Great interest has been shown already by parliamentarians, selected government officials and international organizations.
The training of trainers was given by Irma Alpenidze of MDF Training & Consultancy The training knowledge and skills will provide a basis for the organizations present to train others on the human rights based approach. The people they will train will in first instance be other NGOs. Where possible and relevant government actors will also be targeted by through. Targeting other NGOs for training will make the results of the project more sustainable.
For more information about the training and the project please contact Jan de Vries.
