The OSCE Centre in Ashgabat, in cooperation with the Government of Turkmenistan and with the support of the OSCE Secretariat’s Gender Programme and the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), organized an online forum on the role of women in building peace, confidence and security.
The target audience of the event embraced current and former women leaders from the countries of the Central Asian region, cooperation partners, representatives of executive authorities, civil society, and experts from academia and the private sector.
The online forum was attended by representatives of more than 100 organizations, including ministries and departments of Turkmenistan, particularly the Parliament Speaker, the Ombudsman, and the State Statistics Committee.
The delegates were welcomed by the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde, and OSCE Secretary-General Helga Schmid.
The participants discussed the development and implementation of policies for the protection of women’s rights and freedoms, the use of legal instruments to combat violence against women and girls.
4 sessions were held on the sidelines of the forum.One of them is dedicated to gender equality and the involvement of women in political and public life.
Another is best practices for increasing women’s participation in the security sector.The third is the economic empowerment of women, and the fourth is effective national policies and legal instruments to ensure equal human rights and freedoms.
The online conference highlighted the importance of creating a regional online network to share information and promote gender equality initiatives, and underlined the role of the media to increase women’s participation in peace and security.
There were also positive comments about the National Action Plan for Gender Equality for 2021-2025. Foreign experts shared their personal experience and approaches in addressing gender issues. As participants noted, gender policy should begin with the family.
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