UNDP Uzbekistan

printer-friendly 25/07/2007

Charvak, Tashkent region, 22-26 July -- Students of Legal Clinic under the University of World Economy and Diplomacy (UWED) attended summer school on “Protection of civil rights in civil court” with emphasis on the issues of gender equality and ecologic rights.

The summer school was organized within UNDP’s project “Legal Aid and Legal Literacy for Better Access to Justice”. The project aims at improving the access to justice for people, who cannot afford or have limited access to legal services, such as women, children, the poor, the elderly and people with disabilities and to increase quality of legal services through training of law students.

About 40 students of the Legal Clinic of UWED participated in the event, which covered such issues as international and national standards in legal proceedings, gender equality in Uzbekistan, ecologic rights of citizens and their protection, declamatory skills and ethics in legal proceedings.

Ms Komila Rakhimova, UNDP Gender Specialist, said: “Development agencies often concentrate on ‘serious work’ like economic development and budget reform. However, considering that 34% of the population of Uzbekistan is under 24, youth education is equally important. I am very pleased that due to a partnership between the Legal Clinic of UWED and UNDP such a school is taking place.”

“This is not the first year this school is organized, however we are mainstreaming gender and environmental issues into school curricular for the first time. I trust that as young legal specialists and students should be well aware of relevant international documents, such as the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and its Committee Recommendations to Uzbekistan,” she said.

The CEDAW Convention adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly, is an international documents on the rights of women. Uzbekistan was the first Central Asian country to ratify the convention in 1995 and has reported twice to the CEDAW Committee on its implementation.

One of the CEDAW Committee’s recommendations is promotion of awareness of gender related national and international documents among civil servants and legal workers. And inclusion of these documents into the curricular of legal education and training of judges, lawyers and prosecutors gives a chance to implement one of the recommendations.