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MAIN DIRECTIONS OF STATE GENDER POLICY IN UZBEKISTAN
Seitova Zukhrahon
Doctor of Social Sciences (DSc)
Nukus State named after Ajiniyaz
pedagogical institute
Republic of Karakalpakstan
Abstract:
This article analyzes the political, social, and legal aspects of ensuring gender equality,
as well as its significance in strengthening relations between the state and society, from a
scientific point of view.
Keywords:
politics, ideology, propaganda, gender policy, gender factors, reducing gender
inequality, social gender, law, foundation, social aspects.
Introduction:
The lexical meaning of the concept of "gender" comes from the Latin word
"genus," meaning "gender." If biological sex divides people into women and men, then gender is
aimed at separating the place of women and men in society.
The creation by the state of equal conditions and opportunities for women and men to find and
determine their place in society serves as the basis for ensuring gender equality.
In this legislative act of the highest legal force, aimed at ensuring equal rights and opportunities
for women and men in our country, a new direction in the field of law and lawmaking - gender-
legal expertise - has been introduced. As is known, in 2019, the Law of the Republic of
Uzbekistan "On Guarantees of Equal Rights and Opportunities for Women and Men" (No. ZRU-
562) was adopted.
In particular, gender-legal expertise is the analysis of regulatory legal acts and their drafts for
compliance with the principles of ensuring guarantees of equal rights and opportunities for
women and men.
In accordance with Article 4 of this law, such principles as legality, democracy, equal rights for
women and men, non-discrimination on the basis of gender, openness and transparency are
defined as the main principles for ensuring guarantees of equal rights and opportunities for
women and men. The authority to conduct gender-based legal expertise has been assigned to all
state bodies and other organizations.
Each of them, based on the direction of their activity, analyzes normative legal acts and their
drafts and adopts a conclusion of gender-legal expertise.
The Law defines important aspects of the analysis of regulatory legal acts and their drafts.
In particular, it is established that a normative legal act or its draft, which creates the possibility
of direct or indirect discrimination on the basis of sex, does not comply with the principles of
ensuring equal rights and opportunities for women and men. It should be noted that the law is a
comprehensive and fundamental normative legal document aimed at ensuring gender equality in
our country.
It also defines the main directions of state policy in the field of ensuring equal rights and
opportunities for women and men, mechanisms of state administration in this area. In particular,
in order to prevent gender discrimination against women, a Commission on Ensuring Gender
Equality of the Republic of Uzbekistan has been created. Its main task is to implement a unified
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state policy in the field of ensuring equal rights and opportunities for women and men.
Participates in the development and implementation of state programs, national action plans and
strategies in this area. Annually submits information on the work done to the Oliy Majlis.
Cooperates with international organizations and relevant bodies of foreign countries in the field
of ensuring equal rights and opportunities for women and men and compliance with international
standards in this area. A noteworthy aspect of the law is that it contains norms on maintaining
gender equality in ensuring the political, social, and economic rights of people. In particular,
requirements have been established to ensure equal rights and opportunities for women and men
in the field of public service, for example, to allow the application of temporary special measures
to ensure the implementation of gender policy, providing for the establishment of a quota system
for the employment of employees of the same gender in public service, taking into account the
categories of positions of civil servants, the need to observe the equal rights of women and men
in the formation of a personnel reserve for the positions of heads of state bodies.
In addition, it is envisaged to ensure equal rights and opportunities for women and men when
nominating candidates for deputies of the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis and local
Kengashes of People's Deputies by political parties. In accordance with Articles 70 and 91 of the
updated Electoral Code, the number of women should be at least thirty percent of the total
number of candidates for deputy nominated by a political party. This norm fully corresponds to
the basic principles of ensuring guarantees of equal rights and opportunities for women and men.
The Law also establishes guarantees of equal rights and opportunities for women and men in the
economic sphere, according to which state bodies and heads of organizations, regardless of the
form of ownership, are obliged to ensure equal access to the resources of society. The State
ensures equal rights and opportunities for women and men to carry out entrepreneurial activity.
Incidentally, the prevention of gender discrimination in the exercise of legal rights and freedoms
does not apply to certain social relations. Thus, the establishment of differences in the regulation
of childbirth and breastfeeding, conscription for fixed-term military service, temporary special
measures to ensure the implementation of gender policy, the peculiarities of reproductive health
protection in the field of labor protection for women and men, the provision of recommendations
on professional qualifications, the procedure and conditions of detention in places of detention,
and other measures of legal influence is not considered gender discrimination. In conclusion, it
should be noted that today the issue of ensuring gender equality has been raised to the level of
state policy. This is one of the progressive steps of our country in the field of human rights.
A vivid confirmation of this is the new law, which has become a historical document that will
contribute to ensuring the socio-political and socio-economic development of our country in the
future
.
The Strategy for Achieving Gender Equality in the Republic of Uzbekistan until 2030 includes:
Firstly, the Strategy for Achieving Gender Equality in the Republic of Uzbekistan until 2030
(hereinafter - the Gender Strategy) has been developed in accordance with the Constitution of the
Republic of Uzbekistan, the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan "On Guarantees of Equal Rights
and Opportunities for Women and Men," the priority tasks of the country's development defined
in the Action Strategy for five priority areas of development of the Republic of Uzbekistan in
1
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2017-2021, as well as the National Goals in the field of sustainable development for the period
up to 2030 and other legislative acts. Legality, democracy, openness, and transparency are
defined as the main principles for ensuring gender equality.
Secondly, within the framework of the Gender Strategy, the concept of gender equality means
equal rights and opportunities for women and men in all spheres of public life and activity,
including in politics, economics, law, culture, education, science, sports.
As a result of the large-scale reforms carried out in recent years, a solid legal framework has
been created in the Republic of Uzbekistan to ensure equal rights and opportunities for women
and men in all spheres of public life and activity, and to protect women from harassment and
violence.
In particular, the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan "On Guarantees of Equal Rights and
Opportunities for Women and Men" was adopted.
More than 1,300 women hold leadership positions in the system of state and public
organizations, including 45 in ministries and agencies, 39 in the Administration of the President
of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Cabinet of Ministers, and 207 in local government bodies.
Of the 21,435,000 registered voters in the 2019 elections to the chambers of the Oliy Majlis
of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the Jokargy Kenes of the Republic of Karakalpakstan, and local
Kengashes of People's Deputies, almost 50 percent, or 10,825,641, are women. In these elections,
41 percent of the nominated candidates were women, and their number exceeded the 30 percent
quota established by the Electoral Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan.
The issue of ensuring gender equality has been elevated to the level of state policy, and the
Committee on Women's and Gender Equality Issues, the Republican Commission on Enhancing
the Role of Women in Society, Gender Equality and Family Issues, Consultative Councils on
Ensuring Equal Rights and Opportunities for Women and Men, and the Republican Women's
Public Council have been established in the upper house of parliament.
For the first time in the history of Uzbekistan, the number of women in the national parliament
has reached a level corresponding to the recommendations of the United Nations. The country's
parliament has risen to 37th place among 190 national parliaments in the world in terms of the
number of women.
Also, women make up 49 percent of the members of the Democratic Party of Uzbekistan
"Milliy Tiklanish" and the People's Democratic Party of Uzbekistan, 46 percent of the members
of the Social Democratic Party of Uzbekistan "Adolat," 41 percent of the members of the Liberal
Democratic Party of Uzbekistan and the Ecological Party of Uzbekistan.
The socio-economic policy pursued in Uzbekistan at all stages of reforms includes a wide
range of issues. Additional guarantees were provided for the systematic increase of household
incomes, the formation of employment and labor relations, and the social protection and support
of certain categories of the population, including women entrepreneurs and farmers.
In particular, in order to ensure women's employment and their wide involvement in
entrepreneurial activity, the practice of allocating concessional loans has been established.
More than 30 percent of clients of the microcredit base of commercial banks are women.
More than 172 thousand women were allocated loans in the amount of 4.9 trillion soums from
commercial banks. As a result, the number of women engaged in entrepreneurial activity
increased by 45 thousand in one year.
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Since 2019, a system has been established for the employment of the population and the
creation of new jobs based on state orders. A procedure for issuing temporary work certificates
to self-employed citizens and recording their work experience has been introduced. As a result,
the share of women employed in the informal sector reached 27 percent. Special attention was
also paid to poverty reduction through the development of remote areas of the republic,
improvement of villages, and support for the economic activity of rural women. More than 1.5
million women work in various sectors of agriculture. Women lead 20% of business entities,
including 7.3% of farms.
Since 2017, fundamental changes have been implemented in the healthcare system,
systematic work has been carried out to strengthen the reproductive health of the population,
train citizens in a conscious and responsible attitude towards the birth of healthy children, and
create equal opportunities for women and men to exercise their reproductive rights.
The activities of the media also play an important role in promoting and achieving gender
equality. The number of radio and television programs reflecting the image of modern socially
and politically active women, highlighting the opportunities created for women and men, has
increased.
In order to organize systematic work on the consistent implementation of the Sustainable
Development Goals of the UN Global Agenda, the national goals and objectives of Uzbekistan in
the field of sustainable development for the period up to 2030 have been adopted in our country.
Within the framework of these tasks, necessary measures have been identified in the political,
social, economic, and other spheres in order to ensure gender equality and expand the rights and
opportunities of all women. The activities of the Parliamentary Commission for monitoring the
implementation of national goals and objectives in the field of sustainable development have
been established.
The regulation of labor migration issues has acquired special significance for Uzbekistan. In
particular, in 2019, the Republic of Uzbekistan became a member of the International
Organization for Migration.
A special fund has been established under the Ministry of Employment and Labor Relations
to support and protect the rights and interests of persons working abroad. At the same time, there
are issues requiring serious attention in expanding women's participation in state and public
construction, socio-economic, educational, healthcare, and other socio-economic spheres. In
particular, the participation of women, on an equal basis with men, in decision-making on topical
issues of state and public administration is insufficiently ensured, and the state of their
involvement in the socio-economic development of the regions remains weak.
Negative views in society regarding the activities of women in state power and administration
hinder them from promoting their ideas in political processes. In most cases, women are assigned
economically insignificant and unpaid household work.
There are sharp differences between women and men in education, and today more than 70
percent of teachers in general secondary education are women.
The share of women studying in the fields of pedagogy and humanities (philology, pedagogy,
psychology, culture and art) is 68 percent, while their share in engineering and technical
(information technology, energy, engineering) and legal fields remains low (24 percent).
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The low quality of healthcare services in the regions of the republic, especially in rural areas,
the underdevelopment of private medical services, and the insufficient medical culture of family
planning between husband and wife contribute to the persistence of maternal and infant mortality.
Insufficient research is being conducted on the gender aspects of external and internal
migration, its impact on women and men, their families, and children, and awareness-raising
work on the opportunities created for the population in this area, women's rights, and
mechanisms for protecting labor migrants is not being organized at the proper level. In addition,
gender expertise of media products is not carried out, there are traditional views on the role of
women and men in the family and society in the media, and the contribution of women to the
development of society is not sufficiently covered in print and electronic media.
The persistence of such problems and shortcomings not only limits the possibility of fully
ensuring human rights and freedoms, but also negatively affects the country's image in the
international arena, its place in international ratings and indices.
In particular, it ranks 139th among 190 countries in the World Bank's "Women, Business and
Law Index" and 89th among 167 countries in the "Women, Peace and Security Index"
maintained by the Georgetown Institute of the USA. According to statistical data from
international indexing organizations, Uzbekistan's place in the global report "Global Gender
Gap," prepared by the World Economic Forum, is not reflected. In this regard, the
implementation of the Gender Strategy will make it possible to eliminate inequality between
women and men in the political, economic, social, and other spheres, and to enhance the image
of the Republic of Uzbekistan in the international arena.
The main goal of the Gender Strategy is to ensure genuine equality of women and men,
regardless of race, nationality, language, religion, social origin, beliefs, personal and social status.
The main tasks of the Gender Strategy are:
-expanding women's access to land and property;
- support for women's equal participation with men in all spheres of life and activity of society,
including in politics, economics, law, culture, education, science and sports, creation of equal
opportunities for their leadership in decision-making;
- increasing the political activity of women, changing negative attitudes regarding their place in
society;
- ensuring guaranteed equal rights and opportunities for women and men in the field of
employment, as well as creating decent jobs, developing women's entrepreneurship, expanding
women's access to loans from commercial banks;
- stimulating women's and men's opportunities for lifelong learning, raising their medical culture
in family planning and strengthening reproductive health, promoting a healthy lifestyle among
them;
- creation of effective organizational and legal mechanisms for combating human trafficking and
forced labor, preventing, detecting, and suppressing harassment and violence;
- strengthening the family, increasing the responsibility of all family members in family relations,
preventing early marriages, marriages between close relatives, early childbirth, and family
divorces;
- Budget planning in promoting the principles of gender equality, equal realization of the rights
and opportunities of women and men, integration of gender issues into budget processes,
improvement of gender statistics;
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- Implementation of comprehensive measures to improve Uzbekistan's position in international
rankings and indices assessing gender equality, women's entrepreneurship, and cases of
harassment and violence against women and men;
-Enhancing the role of parliament, civil society institutions, and the media in achieving the
national goals of ensuring gender equality and empowering all women in the field of sustainable
development for the period up to 2030;
-ensuring the fulfillment of obligations arising from international treaties in the field of gender
equality, implementing measures to ratify international treaties that meet the national interests of
the Republic of Uzbekistan
As another important step against human rights violations, in accordance with the Presidential
Decree of March 7, 2019, "On Measures to Further Strengthen Guarantees of Women's Labor
Rights and Support Entrepreneurial Activity," the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan "On the
Protection of Women from Harassment and Violence" was adopted. This document defines the
task of creating an atmosphere of intolerance against the humiliation and devaluation of women
in society as one of the main directions of state policy.
In fact, gender equality, that is, the equality of men and women, is one of the fundamental
human rights. Recent research shows that this factor is also the basis of the highest level of
economic, social, and political development. Because, according to experts, labor collectives
consisting of 50/50 percent men and women, especially if they are engaged in mental work,
show several times higher results compared to a team consisting only of men. Moreover, gender
equality is an indicator of a country's level of democratic development. Therefore, to join the
ranks of developed countries and attract more investments to our country, we must pay sufficient
attention to this indicator.
To achieve consistent, large-scale, and significant results in this area, a document in the form
of a general plan, or simply put, a program of action, is needed. In this regard, it is this document
that has been developed in our country - the draft Strategy for Achieving Gender Equality in the
Republic of Uzbekistan for 2020-2030.
This historic document was developed in accordance with the Constitution of the Republic of
Uzbekistan, the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan "On Guarantees of Equal Rights and
Opportunities for Women and Men," the priority tasks for the development of the country,
defined in the Action Strategy for five priority areas of development of the Republic of
Uzbekistan in 2017-2021, as well as the National Goals in the field of sustainable development
for the period up to 2030, and other legislative acts. Among the main principles of ensuring
gender equality, the principles of legality, democracy, openness, and transparency are defined.
This document, aimed at ensuring the genuine equality of women and men, regardless of race,
nationality, language, religion, social origin, beliefs, personal and social status, will soon be
presented to the public, and extensive discussions are planned on it.
Today, more than 1,500 women hold leadership positions in the system of state and public
organizations at various levels, including in ministries and departments, local executive
authorities. In order to increase the participation of women in public administration, a personnel
reserve of more than 6 thousand active women has been formed. Currently, systematic training is
2
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being organized to prepare them for various leadership positions. In the system of the Ministry of
Internal Affairs, 16 women have taken leadership positions, and 6 women have taken the
position of khokim. The number of women who have become laureates of state awards of
various levels has reached 2,224. To date, 577 women have been awarded the "Mo'ta'bar Ayol"
badge.
For the first time in the history of Uzbekistan, the number of women in the national parliament
has reached the level determined by the recommendations of the United Nations. The country's
parliament has risen to 37th place among 190 national parliaments in the world in terms of the
number of women. In our country, additional guarantees have been provided for the social
protection and support of women entrepreneurs and farmers.
The share of women in the total number of employees of large companies and non-
governmental organizations is almost completely ensured by gender equality, reaching 49.5
percent in 2019. Moreover, more than 20 percent of business entities in our country are headed
by women.
Along with this, as noted in the Strategy, in order to organize systematic work on the consistent
implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations Global Agenda, the
"National Goals and Objectives of Uzbekistan in the Field of Sustainable Development until
2030" have been adopted in our country. The 5th Sustainable Development Goal of Uzbekistan
until 2030 is "Ensuring Gender Equality and Expanding the Rights and Opportunities of All
Women." This, in turn, includes economic, social, legal, and other measures. All state bodies and
organizations, institutions, as well as public organizations of state importance are responsible for
the implementation of these tasks.
At the same time, there are issues that require expanding the participation of women in state
and public construction, strengthening attention in the socio-economic, educational, healthcare,
and other socio-economic spheres. In particular, it is necessary to ensure the expansion of
women's participation in decision-making on topical issues of state and public administration on
an equal basis with men.
In this context, based on the Strategy for Achieving Gender Equality, the achievement of
gender equality is carried out in a number of priority areas, based on long-term target tasks.
These include ensuring equal rights and opportunities for women and men in public service, in
the sphere of socio-economic, family relations and child-rearing, and in the exercise of electoral
rights. The strategy also provides for the budgeting and financing of state programs, taking into
account measures to ensure gender equality
In conclusion, it should be noted that gender policy is one of the most important and
fundamental areas of public administration. This acquires special and leading significance in
New Uzbekistan as a unique factor in strengthening the social aspects of the state.
Иқтибослар / Сноски / References
1.
https://qoraqalpoq.adliya.uz/uz/news/detail.php?ID=50542
2.
https://lex.uz/docs/5466673#5467718
3
https://ombudsman.uz/oz/docs/ozbekistonda-olib-borilgan-gender-siyosati-inson-
huquqlari-kafolatlanishining-muhim-mezoni-3
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3.
https://ombudsman.uz/oz/docs/ozbekistonda-olib-borilgan-gender-siyosati-inson-
huquqlari-kafolatlanishining-muhim-mezoni-
