Outcome TJK_D_3.1

Normative and policy frameworks are promoted and adapted in line with international standards, and institutions have the commitment, knowledge and capacities to legislate, plan, implement and monitor policies to address VAWG and femicide.

The outcome has not yet been achieved . Despite the adoption of the related Law and its Action Plan, Tajikistan does not yet have strong coordination and accountability mechanisms to address violence against women. The limited role and capacity of state bodies to prevent and response to violence against women and to legislate, plan and implement the policies remain a problem. Both the Law and the NAP fail to attribute clear tasks to each of agencies leading to weak coordination between the ministries it enumerates. However, some progress was made. An enabling environment to translate into plans the legislative/policy frameworks was created through CEDAW and UPR reporting processes. UN Women contributed this process through the identification of recommendations from the 2 nd cycle of UPR; brought up-dated information on the status of implementation; i dentified sources of information (Common Country Analysis 2021, UN and national reports); reflected last 5 years’ developments that needed to be covered in the 3 rd cycle . The efforts were appreciated that the Human Rights Council requested UN Women to make a brief statement to congratulate Tajikistan on its efforts, offer technical support in implementation, and to raise key substantive issues at the Human Rights Council when Tajikistan is being discussed at the session to be held in February 2022. UN Women made a full spectrum of related gaps’ analysis and recommendations to UNCT CEDAW submission on: Rec. 26.a: Criminalization of gender-based violence; Rec. 36 a: Elimination Negative Stereotypes; Rec. 46 c: Promote and encourage the official registration of marriages. The statement provided objective UNCT insights to the CEDAW committee to be further articulated to the GoT in the form of CEDAW recommendations. Voices of women were made heard through different consultative platforms and reflected in the UNCT submissions . One of the arranged platforms was a sub-regional consultation to prepare for the 65th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. 50 participants – women with disabilities, girls of Y-Peer Network, youth of the programme “UPHIFT”, women’s NGOs - summarized the status of progress of Tajikistan on women's political participation and elimination of violence, clustered the main obstacles for change and developed recommendations. UN Women included t he interventions for change in the draft Human Rights Strategy of RT for the period till 2030. Inter-sectoral cooperation between the ministries was improved. Commitments and knowledge of 90 employees of the ministries and women’s committee to apply standard operating procedures in line with regulations on quality services for victims were improved much at the UN Women trainings. The Module was developed with consideration of findings of the capacity needs assessment of 4 Ministries/State women’s committee and based on Global standards – essential services package module, kindly shared by UN Women HQ. UN Women cooperated with the State women’s committee on interaction with the ministries, with experts on conducting capacity needs assessment, development of the institutional training package and conducting trainings, UN Women’s RO and HQ on application of the Global Standards and UNDP on trainings for justice and law enforcement sector. Lessons learnt capacity building events are successful when representatives of all engaged ministries are in the room. This fact boosts discussion, solves questions, eliminates wrong expectations. The existing ToC is considered as optimal.

Normative and policy frameworks are promoted and adapted in line with international standards, and institutions have the commitment, knowledge and capacities to legislate, plan, implement and monitor policies to address VAWG and femicide.

Outcome has not been achieved , but significant progress was made: State and non-state stakeholders, including UN GTG members accessed the Review of the National Action Plan (NAP) on Prevention of Violence in the Family (2014-2023) to assess progress, successes, gaps, and identify future priorities, conducted by UN Women. The Review results will contribute to the new comprehensive NAP on elimination of all forms of violence against women (beyond 2023) to ensure comprehensive gender sensitive approach and relevant survivor- centered provisions in the new NAP. Thus, the legislative and policy frameworks will be translated into evidence-based plans, in line with international human rights standards. This work is planned for 2023. UN Women partnered with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UNICEF, UNFPA, and local experts, who provided key recommendations and inputs throughout the process. In the course of this work, UN Women further strengthened its partnership with the CoWFa, as the main Government agency in charge of NAP. Women and Girls with Disabilities (WWDs) have improved access to Medical forensic and Crisis Centers’ services in six target districts during violence investigation process and violence cases. Twenty (20) medical forensic experts (MFE) increased their knowledge on and applied the Global standards of provision of services to respond to sexual and gender-based violence against women and girls with disabilities. Eighteen (18) employees of six target NGOs increased their knowledge and understanding of disability, human rights based approach in their work, legal and non-discrimination framework for people with disabilities (PWD) and improved their practical skills in daily case management and correct documentation of the facts of violence. The NGOs' specialists accessed practical information on understanding disability and rules and procedures of documenting the facts of violence against PWDs by applying the developed Guidelines on counselling and providing aid to WGWDs. Six Medical Forensic Departments and six target NGOs received material support in the form of computer equipment, semi-medical furniture - assistive hearing aids; medical screens 3-fold (Bolognese fabric) on wheels for functional zoning; indoor wheelchair; optical magnifiers for reading; handrails with ribbed non-slip surface; laptop; MFCs; software packages, gynecologic sets, and more. Thus, 611 citizens (48 girls under-18 (8%), 563 women (92%) and 3 men) subjected to different forms of violence, saught help and legal advice from trained NGOs. Of these citizens, 124 are women with disabilities, or is 20.2%. All women were provided with psychological support, legal advice or were referred to relevant structures and services. More than 3,800 people raised their awareness on existing assistance services to respond to and prevent violence against women and girls with disabilities by participating in information sessions/actions. This work was implemented by UN Women, responsible partner NGO AFIF, and six local CSOs in the frames of the Spotlight initiative. Ministry of Health and Social Protection was the key Government partner under this initiative. 10 CSOs servicing victims of VAWG developed and employed a unified, VAWG case registration database for the collection of data disaggregated by type of violence, perpetrator, categories of violence against women and girls; disaggregated by sex, age and relationship between victim and perpetrator, ethnicity of the survivors of violence, the number of complaints received, legal and other types of aid rendered, and outcome of the case/sentence imposed on perpetrators. Remarkably, service providers regularly collect and analyze the data related to VAWG as a result of the electronic database, in line with international standards. Thus, prevalence and incidence data on VAWG will be easy to analyze and be made publicly available to inform evidence-based decision making. This work was done by Office in consultation with the Regional Office under the Spotlight Programme. UN Women also provided training and needed equipment to database users. Spotlight UN and non-UN partners and other organizations working on VAWG in Tajikistan accessed the database for potential replication. Local CSOs and experts provided key inputs and recommendations during database development. A number of local CSOs developed with the Alternative CEDAW Report, which is justified by evidence, data and statistics and contains a set of concrete recommendations to the State, with UN Women support. As a result of this report, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women will have access objective first-hand information on the status of women and girls in Tajikistan. UN Women partnered with the OSCE, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UNICEF, UNFPA, and local experts, provided key recommendations and guided local CSOs through the process. The National Action Plan on Security Council Resolution 1325 (NAP 1325) includes all of the important aspects of the Women, Peace, and Security agenda, has been prepared by the Government of Tajikistan, and will be further elaborated and adopted in 2023. As the previous NAP 1325 was adopted in 2019 till 2022, the Government of Tajikistan conducted four monitoring meetings with partners in 2022, including those representing CSOs (youth as well) in various regions of the country to assess the implementation of the NAP and identify main areas of interventions for the new NAP, as a result of UN Women advocacy. The outcomes of the monitoring visits and discussions demonstrated that, since 2019, peace and security agenda in Tajikistan and the region has been changed; interlinkage between climate change and security issues prioritized; the need to engage with the CSOs and youth organizations increased. UN Women established partnerships with OSCE and BOMCA project to better coordinate development and implementation of the NAP. Key state partners include: CoWFA, ministries of interior and defence, Committees on National Security and Emergencies, and local government actors. Civil society organizations, including Women Peacebuilders Network and youth organizations significantly contributed to this process. The UN Women was key in supporting the process through technical expertise, convening work, guiding the inclusion of climate change issues (in light of cross-border conflicts) and needs of returnees from Iraq and Syria, and facilitating regional WPS and NAP 1325 dialogs. The UN Women global WPS programm, core Office funds, and on-going Office's programmes on violence against women and governance contributed to the process. Further advocacy for finalization of the NAP and government funding allocations will be done in 2023. The approximate UN Women’s financial support to the development of NAP will be calculated upon completion of the process, and UN Women plans to intentionally engage with various groups at public discussions in 2023. Notably, under the guidance of the Regional Office, the new ToC 2023-2026 was developed in 2022. The new ToC informed by all good practices and lessons learned and reflects recent developments in the country and in the region.