Gender equality in parliament focus of OSCE workshop for members of parliament, political parties and judges in Tajikistan

Gender mainstreaming in politics and legislation and best practices in reviewing legislation for gender sensitivity were the topics of a two-day advanced workshop that ended on 16 February 2022 in Dushanbe. The OSCE Programme Office in Dushanbe and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) co-organized the event.

Some 31 representatives of the Parliament, courts of the Republic of Tajikistan and seven registered political parties attended the workshop. They advanced their knowledge and understanding of gender mainstreaming in politics and reflected on how gender equality is relevant for all the parliamentary activities. Participants also went through basic self-assessment on how gender equality is taken into account in parliamentary work, procedures and structure.

Yulia Netesova, Chief of ODIHR’s Democratic Governance and Gender Unit and Saša Gavrić, ODIHR’s Associate Gender Officer delivered the training workshop.

Opening the workshop, Tea Jaliashvili, Officer-in-Charge of the OSCE Programme Office in Dushanbe said: “A women’s alliance or caucus will also create opportunities for networking with other women politicians from Parliaments across the OSCE region, where similar alliances and caucuses exist. We hope that shared good practices at today’s roundtable and our joint discussion will help to achieve a better understanding on gender mainstreaming in politics.”

“The launch of the Alliance of Women Parliamentarians in Tajikistan as a new platform fully reflects the desire of the country’s Parliament to make a worthy contribution to increasing women's participation in all spheres and the gender mainstreaming in the legislation”, said Dilrabo Mansuri, Deputy Chairperson of Majlisi Namoyandagon of Majlisi Oli of the Republic of Tajikistan (the Lower Chamber of Tajikistan’s Parliament). “The Alliance of Women Parliamentarians of Tajikistan is now at a new stage of development. As members of the Alliance, we will actively participate in the implementation of its goals and objectives, we will support and strengthen its authority and help to expand the influence of the Alliance of Women Parliamentarians in the country’s political, public, and social spheres.”

Yulia Netesova, Chief of ODIHR’s Democratic Governance and Gender Unit said: “We hope that the work of the Alliance of Women Parliamentarians will yield positive result in gender mainstreaming in politics in the nearest future and the OSCE Programme Office in Dushanbe along with ODIHR will continue to support women MPs in this endeavour.”