Gender and Development

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Tajikistan

Women’s Legal Literacy — The Association of Women of Science Tajikistan

Background of the project

Enhancing women's legal literacy is crucial so that women can defend and further their rights and opportunities in all areas of social, political, and economic life. As in many countries, women in Tajikistan have very low levels of legal literacy and are unaware of their rights. A UNESCO study found that 94% of women in the sample with tertiary educations could not name any international document or law on the rights of women, and only 22% were familiar with national laws or constitutional guarantees regarding women's rights. The level of legal literacy among rural, less-educated women is even lower. Although non-discriminatory legislation for women is guaranteed by the country's constitution, in practice violations of women's rights are an everyday occurrence. One of the factors sustaining these violations is a general lack of awareness of women's rights.

Project Objectives and Scope

The Association of Women of Science Tajikistan (AWST) has long been involved in advocating women's rights, particularly in relation to violence against women. The main objective of this project was to raise rural women's legal literacy through a series of workshops and publications.

Women's legal education was to be delivered through the following activities:

• acquainting women with basic international legal documents and national legislation concerning their rights
• determining the influence of violence and conflict on the moral and physical wellbeing of women
• identifying key causes of gender-based conflict and violence in order to develop mechanisms to reduce them
• training women in basic conflict resolution techniques

In all, eight women from AWST were involved in the project: two lawyers, one psychologist, one sociologist, and three local specialists (one each from the three regions).

Outcomes of the Project

The project was very successful and resulted in a number of positive outcomes in the areas of legal education, publications, and basic research into the status and violation of women's rights in Tajikistan.

In total, 90 women received legal education in Kofarnikhon, Kurgan-Tube, and Tursun-Zade. These 3-day workshops covered the following topics (dedicating one day to each): legal aspects of conflict resolution, women's rights in the family, and women's reproductive rights. At the end of each workshop, support groups were formed among the women in order to take the legal education program to the local level. Women were provided with packages of key international and national legislation relating to their rights including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the UN Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW, 1979), the UN Declaration on Ending All Forms of Violence Against Women (1993), the Constitution of the Republic of Tajikistan, the criminal code, the family code (1998), the civil code (1999) and the labor code (1999).

During these workshops, women participated in a number of small group exercises designed to assist them to relate their internationally and constitutionally guaranteed rights to their everyday experiences at home and work. For example, following a session on CEDAW and the UN Declaration on Ending All Forms of Violence Against Women, participants were asked to "create" a set of laws to protect the rights of women in marriage and in the family. They were asked to consider issues such as whether women and men should have equal rights concerning children, whether domestic violence should be treated as a criminal offence, if there should be equal distribution of household work including child care, and who should decide the number of children in a family. This "legislation" was then compared to existing rights guaranteed in both international conventions and national legislation.

AWST also prepared a number of publications that were distributed to workshop participants among others. These included three pamphlets ('Violence: Is it possible to avoid?" "Sexual Violence and the Rights of Girls," and "Ethics of Sexual Relations and the Moral-Legal Responsibility of Youth") as well as two booklets ("How to Exit from Conflict" and "What about Conflict?").

Sociological research into women's legal literacy was also conducted during the project. In total, 450 women from Kofarnikhon, Kurgan-Tube, and Tursun-Zade completed a questionnaire focussing on women's legal literacy. Women were asked a series of questions relating to two key areas:

1. their knowledge of international conventions, legislation, and other documents relating to women's rights
2. their knowledge of national legislation and the constitutional provisions that pertain to women's rights

Overall, 83% were not familiar with any international document or law relating to women's rights. With respect to national laws and guarantees, only 23% knew that their country's constitution protects women's rights, and only 3.7% were familiar with any clauses relating to women's rights in the criminal and family codes.

Based on this survey and on the comments of workshop participants, there is an urgent need to establish a system of women's legal education in Tajikistan. Legal education workshops conducted by women's nongovernment organizations are important avenues for women to learn about their rights and to gain the confidence to defend them when they are violated.

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