Best practices of the French Republic in the area of gender equality were introduced to the members of the Working group of the Interagency Commission to ensure Implementation of the International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law Obligations of Turkmenistan.
Primary objective of the study tour was identifying good practices of France in practical realization of the action plans addressing gender equality, including the issues of women empowerment, domestic violence, engendering legislation and education programmes, among many others, as well as the monitoring mechanisms of the plans’ implementation.
Turkmenistan has recently developed the National Action Plan (NAP) on gender equality for 2014-2020, with support of UNFPA technical support, and awaits its endorsement. The next step will require inter-sectoral cooperation in its implementation and monitoring and now is the time to study and build on the successful experiences of other countries.
The Delegation of Turkmenistan included representatives of the Ministry of Labor and Social Production of Turkmenistan, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Women’s Union of Turkmenistan, and the National Institute for Democracy and Human Rights under the President of Turkmenistan.
During the mission, the delegation held productive and insightful meetings with the Ministry of National Education, High Council for Gender Equality, Ministry of Women’s Rights, the Office of the French Ombudsman, the President of Delegation on Women Rights of the French National Assembly, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of France, the President of the Senatorial delegation for women’s rights, National Federation of Women’s Solidarity, the Department for International Relations of Paris City Hall, Commission on gender equality and anti-discrimination strategies of the city of Paris.
Ms. Shemshat Atadjanova, Head of the Human Rights Department of the NIDHR and a member of the Working group, noted that “the experience and detailed study of the legal framework of France's equal status of men and women and its practical implementation was helpful and informative and will have its positive impact on the further improvement of the work in this field in Turkmenistan”.
The country continues to assume concrete international obligations and is consistently implementing the provisions of Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which Turkmenistan ratified in 2007, along with its Optional Protocol later in 2009. One of such recommendations of the CEDAW Concluding Observations was the creation of a national mechanism to implement a successful gender equality policy.
In light of this, the NAP on gender equality of Turkmenistan will serve as an important instrument for gender mainstreaming in the country.
The experience of France on the implementation of national action plans for gender equality and information received during the study tour were shared with colleagues during the round-table organized as a follow-up to the study tour.
UNFPA: Delivering a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe, and every young person’s potential is fulfilled.
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For additional information, please contact
Ene Tuyliyeva, Advocacy Communication Associate
Dovran Yamatov, NPA on PD and Gender
Tel: 425250
Web: unfpa.org.tm, www.untuk.org
