European Trade Union Committee for Education

On 17 to 19 July 2016 the second workshop on gender equality organised in the framework of the EI/ETUCE Central Asia Consortium Project took place in Kurguntyube, Tajikistan. The third project workshop on gender equality took place from 20 to 22 July 2016 in Tursunzoda, Tajikistan.

The main aims of these workshops are to a) discuss the role of education trade unions in the elimination of discrimination against women’s rights; b) introduce the basic concepts and principles of  gender equality; c) analyse existing gender related issues in Tajikistan; d) raise awareness on global gender issues; e) elaborate individual action plans on gender issues with a view to implementing them at schools and work places.

The participants, trade union members at oblast (regional) level, warmly welcome this initiative since gender equality is seen as a serious problem in the country due to, among other reasons, early forced marriages and discontinued tertiary education.

The workshops help the participants, the majority of them are women, to understand that discrimination against women and inequality violates human rights and universal legislation such as (the UN Beijing Platform for Action) and needs to be prevented and eliminated. The action plans elaborated at the end of each workshop encourages them to implement, disseminate and apply the lessons learned.

The union members have the opportunity to learn more about UN and UNICEF projects and initiatives on gender-related issues in Tajikistan and to obtain in-depth knowledge of the key elements of The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).