Second day of the conference «Elimination of gender-based violence against women and girls of Central Asia»
November 6, 2018, 06:00
Within the framework of the two-day conference “From Political Decisions to Actions. Eliminating gender-based violence against women and girls in Central Asia”, more than 60 participants gathered in the city of Bishkek to discuss comprehensive strategies in the fight against all forms of violence against women and girls.
The conference is highly relevant, since important political and legislative reforms are currently underway to address the problem of gender-based violence.
Participants of the event, including high-ranking government officials, members of Parliament, representatives of civil society and experts from Central Asian countries noted the need to strengthen regional cooperation to eliminate gender-based violence that violates the rights of women and children, causes great economic damage to society and is an obstacle to ways to sustainable development.
The second day of the conference was opened by presenting a video that was prepared by the “Roza Otunbayeva Initiative” foundation for International Day of Girls.
Ex-President Roza Otunbayeva became an honorary guest of the conference. She opened the second day of the regional conference on the elimination of gender-based violence against women and girls in Central Asia. In her speech, Rosa Isakovna drew the attention of the conference participants that women are doing a lot of work in the countries of our region, supporting the national resource. And the topic of violence, unfortunately, is related to every country in Central Asia.
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“Do you know the price of violence? The economic price of violence is very high, and includes the price of social, medical and law enforcement services, not counting the impact of violence on the mental psyche, on the victim’s soul and on each family member. We have to talk about this price,”said ex-President Roza Otunbayeva.
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In addition, she noted that society is in the grip of social norms, which are very difficult to change. Roza Otunbayeva proposed a series of measures to eliminate violence against women and girls.
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"Maybe we need a special ombudsman or institution to combat the kidnap of girls?
The shameful ala-kachuu must to be over. "
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In addition, the ex-President proposed introducing a mandatory course on gender equality, so there is a research and a factual basis for developing effective solutions.
His Excellency Ambassador Robin Ord-Smith also spoke at the conference; he noted that violence issues were very important for the UK. “In the UK, laws and instruments have been developed to protect victims of violence. In addition, we have joined the global movement “We will not leave a single girl behind” that guarantees a quality life for 12 years old girls.
The work of the conference continued in panel discussions.
