Study of the architecture of response to GBV in Central Asian countries informs the development of a set of priority actions

The regional meeting in Almaty on 14 September 2022,  marked the completion of a regional study of the architecture of response to gender-based violence in the countries of Central Asia. Over 100 national experts, women’s rights and gender activists, representative of key government agencies discussed the findings on the ground. Conclusions pointed at insufficient number of police trained to handle GBV cases, general shortage of crisis centres providing safe accommodation to victims/survivors of violence and their children, and severe deficit of staff with required qualifications. 

Majority of invited experts, practitioners and officials representing law enforcement and justice sectors, state and non-state crisis centers, research institutions, gender activists and international community from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are not new to the regional programme for Central Asia. They were participating and contributing to research, advocacy and knowledge-sharing throughout  regional programme implementation in 2021-2022. 

Following an overview of findings of the regional study, the meeting broke down into smaller groups to reflect on areas of strengthening interaction between the key sectors providing essential services to survivors of violence; improving availability and accessibility of services to vulnerable groups; and nurturing the culture of zero tolerance towards violence against women and girls. Each participant contributed to the development of a set of priority actions on enhancement of the architecture of response to GBV in the countries of Central Asia.  The range of proposed actions is offering additional programming areas for EWAV work by the states, civil society organisations, local communities, and international organisations. A few examples are:

• Separate gender equality agenda from family and demographic policy.
• Include definition of sexual harassment in the Labour Code to address GBV problem in the workplace.
• Revisit existing practices and procedures of forensic medical examination to make the experience of survivors of violence less painful and traumatic and services of forensic expertise more available and accessible to women.
• Address insecurity surrounding inheritance and other rights of women and their children in religious marriages and early marriages. 
• Introduce performance indicators for police officers;
• Revisit existing standards on provision of services to survivors of violence by crisis centers;
• Initiate the work on regional declaration on fight against gender-based violence.

There is a long way to gender equality and freedom from all forms of violence against women and girls, but important decisions, initiatives and partnerships are being implemented for the benefit of women, families, local communities and nations.

For further details, please contact Ms. Natalia Maqsimchook, UNDP Project Officer, natalia.maqsimchook@undp.org