Subject: [fem-women2000 376] Kyrgyz Women in New York
From: lalamaziwa <lalamaziwa@jca.apc.org>
Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2000 06:45:30 -0500
Seq: 376
Forwarded by lalamaziwa <lalamaziwa@jca.apc.org>
---------------- Original message follows ----------------
From: "liz" <liz@gn.apc.org>
To: Multiple recipients of list <b5ngonews@lists.sn.apc.org>
Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2000 17:27:22 +0200
Subject: [B5NGONEWS] Kyrgyz Women in New York
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Global Women's Media Team/Electronic News Bulletin
distributed by Isis International-Manila
mailto:owner-bpfa-news@isiswomen.org
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Kyrgyz Women in New York
by Cholpon Akmatova
June 2, 2000.
New York -- It would be hard to book a hotel room these days, at least for
the next week or so, if you happen to arrive in this city.
More than 30,000 women from 188 countries, including Kyrgyzstan,
are in New York to participate in the Special Session of the General
Assembly of the United Nations to be convened from 5-9 June to assess the
progress achieved in the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action
for women signed in 1995.
The Kyrgyz delegation includes Rosa Aknazarova, a member of the
Kyrgyz Parliament, Sagyn Ismailova, Chairman of the State Commission for
Family, Women and Youth, and Zamira Toktokhodgaeva, Head of the Kyrgyz
Mission to the UN.
Five years ago at UN Fourth World Conference on Women held in
Beijing, China, 189 governments, including Kyrgyz Republic, committed
themselves to advance the goals of equality, development and peace for all
women around the world by adopting the Beijing Platform for Action.
The Beijing Platform for Action calls upon Governments to take
action in the following 12 critical areas of concern: Women and poverty;
women and education; women and health; violence against women; women and
armed conflict; women and the economy; women in power and decision-making;
institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women; human rights of
women; women and media; women and environment and the girl-child.
In July last year the International Conference on Women's Rights,
held in Kyrgyzstan, identified the following three critical areas of
concern that have not been adequately addressed by the Central Asian
Governments: violence against women, women and the economy; women in power
and decision-making.
The Central Asian Conference found that violence against women has
worsened in Central Asia due to the socio-economic crisis brought about by
the drastic transition from a socialist regime. In Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan
and Kazakhstan, NGO crisis centers have reported an increase in the number
of domestic violence cases they handled. In Kyrgyzstan, 60% of the cases of
violence against women were domestic violence cases. Despite the prevalence
of the problem, governments have failed to acknowledge it. It remains, the
conference organizers said, "a hidden" concern.
Closure of state-run factories and businesses due to transition
>from a centrally planned economy to the market economy has caused massive
unemployment and loss of employment benefits and privileges. Majority of
those affected are women. People have to generate employment for themselves
but they lack knowledge, skills and capital to do so. Women are engaged in
buying and selling clothes and food and other small businesses. However,
these are rudimentary enterprises which are not sustainable in the long
term, they said.
While national laws provide for equal political participation for
women, they are still under-represented in all levels of decision-making.
In Kyrgyzstan, of the 150 members of the Parliament, only four are women;
of the 17 ministers, only one is a woman.
The Central Asian Conference made relevant recommendations to the
Governments concerning the above issues. Let us hope that our women in the
UNGASS will be successful in lobbying for the interests of Kyrgyz women,
and Sagyn Ismailova will make sure that the Kyrgyz Government implements
its commitments on the Beijing Platform for Action.
*Cholpon Akmatova is a member of the Global Women's Media Team (GWMT) for
the UN General Assembly Session to Review the Beijing Platform for
Action. The team is composed of NGO women and women journalists from
Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe. The GWMT is
coordinated by Isis International-Manila and generously supported by
UNIFEM-East and Southeast Asia, UNIFEM-South Asia, Canadian International
Development Agency-Southeast Asia Gender Equity Programme, UNDP-Latin
America and the Caribbean, UNDP-Mongolia, British High Commission in
Vanuatu, Foundation for Sustainable Society, Inc; National Centre for
Cooperation in Development (NCOS-Pilipinas), World Council of Churches,
and WomenAction.
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