37THE DEVELOPMENT OF GENDER EQUALITY IN UZBEKISTAN AND THE GENDER EQUALITY REFORMS OF LAST YEARS
Ubaydullaev Saydullo Abdukakhar ugli,
Student of Tashkent State University of Law E-mail: s. a. ubaydullayev@gmail. com
A R T I C L E I N F O
A B S T R A C T
Keywords:
the concept of gender equality, gender Islam, equality of rights of women and men, ensuring gender equality, the role of women in the life of society, the right of women.
The article provides detailed information on the legal basis of the establishment of gender equality in the Republic of Uzbekistan, its advantages, the reforms carried out in the years of development and the last, as well as the scope of work carried out to ensure gender equality from the first days of independence to the present day and expand the legal opportunities of all.
Since the first days of independence, the Republic of Uzbekistan has supported the democratic principle and joined nearly 70 major international documents on the provision of human rights. These are the Universal Declaration of human rights, The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the Millennium Development Goals and others. In addition, the Republic has
created a completely new institutional environment for the implementation of a constitutional print-out on the equality of women and men in the life of society, which includes: committee of women of Uzbekistan (1991), The Institute of the representative of the parliament for Human Rights (Ombudsman), the commission for the observance of constitutional rights and freedoms of citizens under the representative of the Supreme Assembly for Human
Rights (1995). In order to coordinate the activities of all state and nongovernmental organizations related to the protection of human rights was established the National Human Rights Center of the Republic of Uzbekistan (1996). Furthermore, to study the current legislation, its compliance with international norms and standards in the field of human rights, to develop proposals for the implementation of international legal norms in the field of human rights to the current national legislation, to conduct scientific expertise of draft laws, to prepare proposals for plans and programs related to the activity of creativity was established the Institute for monitoring current legislation under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan.
It is worth noting that almost all acts created to this day in our country have ensured equality of rights of women and men, including:
- as stated in Article 18 of the Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan "all citizens of the Republic of Uzbekistan have the same rights and freedoms and are equal before the law, regardless of gender, race, nationality, language, religion, social origin, personality, personal and social status" [1]. Our Constitution, which is considered to be the main act, guarantees for each person a whole set of personal,
social, political, cultural and economic rights in the International Convention on Human Rights. In our constitution, the inviolability of rights and freedoms to every person is strongly stated, no one has the right to limit them.
The Family Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan (1998) strengthens the equality of personal and property rights of women and men in marital relations (Article 2) and establishes the obligations of the spouses in the field of child upbringing and care, as well as other family matters (Article 21) [2].
Considering the possibility of education as a decisive factor in expanding the rights and opportunities of women and increasing their well-being, in the field of professional education and development of their abilities, we will witness that the right to education in the Republic is guaranteed by the Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan for all citizens regardless of gender (Article 41).
Equal rights of women and men on education are also established by the law of the Republic of Uzbekistan "on education", and on physical development and sports - the law of the Republic of Uzbekistan "on Physical Education and sports"(Article 2).
In order to further expand the participation of women in the decision-making level, decrees of the president of the Republic of Uzbekistan "On measures to increase the role of women in the state and social construction of the Republic of Uzbekistan" dated March 2, 1995 and "On additional measures to support the activities of women in Uzbekistan" dated May 25, 2004, and In the Labor Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan (1995) in relation to the right of women to Labor, a protectionist approach is used. The employer does not have the right to give a woman a refusal in employment because of her pregnancy or her many children. Some articles of the code contain norms aimed at protecting women from working in harmful or severe conditions, as well as other benefits during pregnancy. It is strictly defined as [3] their labor rights are kept to an extent of relevance. The legislation of the Republic of Uzbekistan provides for measures aimed at preventing violence against women and girls. The Criminal Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan enshrines various punishments for violent acts committed against women (articles 103, 115, 117,121, 136). All normative and legal acts of the Republic of Uzbekistan are adapted to the Articles of the Constitution and
do not have any norms that discriminate women. Direct or indirect violation or restriction of the equality of citizens [4] is punishable by the Criminal Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan (Article 141). Thus, in the years of independence, a progressive and reliable basis has been created for the implementation of state policy towards women and men aimed at ensuring a constitutional print-out on equality of women and men in the legal, organizational, financial-economic, social and other spheres at the level of legislative and executive bodies in the Republic.
In order to organize systematic work on the consistent implementation of Sustainable Development Goals, the resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers "on measures for the implementation of national goals and objectives in the field of sustainable development of Uzbekistan for the period up to 2030 years" was adopted. The 5th objective of this sustainable development strategy is "to ensure Gender equality and expand the rights and opportunities of all women and girls". In particular, the following is stated in it:
> elimination of all forms of discrimination against women in all places;
> disposing all forms of violence against women, including trafficking in persons, sexual exploitation and other forms of exploitation;
> early termination of marriages and rape marriages;
> recognizing and appreciating non-paid labor for the maintenance and maintenance of households by providing social protection systems of services, infrastructure and Public Utilities, encouraging the principle of general responsibility for Family Maintenance, taking into account national conditions;
> to provide equal opportunities for women and girls to participate in all stages of political, economic and social life, as well as to be leaders in decision-making;
> to provide general use of health care services to provide general medical and sanitary assistance in the field of preservation of reproductive health;
> broadening programs that support women in their exercise of their rights and interests in the social and economic sphere;
> enhancing more active use of high-efficiency technologies, in particular information and communication technologies, in order to promote the rights and opportunities of women and girls;
> full integration of the principles of gender equality into the process of engagement in the adoption of state programs at various stages of governance. [5]
To fulfill these duties means the responsibility of all state bodies and organizations, institutions, as well as public organizations of State importance. In the "strategy of action on five priority directions of development of the Republic of Uzbekistan in 2017-2021", among the priority directions of development of the social sphere, it was noted the necessity of increasing socio-political activity of women and girls, their position in the management of the state and society, ensuring employment of girls graduating from the women's professional. Also the Coordinating Council on the implementation of national goals and objectives in this area has been established. As a result of the reforms carried out to ensure Gender equality changes have also taken place in our national legislation. In particular, on September 2, 2019, was adopted the act "On guarantees of equal rights and opportunities for women and men". According to the act, the basic principles for ensuring equal rights and guarantees of opportunities for women and men are as follows:
Legitimacy, democracy,
equality of women and men; non-discrimination on sex; openness and transparency have been firmly defined[7]. Although Uzbekistan has started the adoption of gender equality act much later than other countries.
It should be note that the adoption of the act on gender equality was a big and important step for Uzbekistan and society. For the first time by act, in our national legislation has been described the concept of "gender". According to the act, gender is a social aspect in which relations between women and men manifested in all spheres of life and activity of society, including politics, economy, law, ideology and Culture, Education, Science. The lexical meaning of the concept of" Gender "in Latin "genesus", that is, "sex". [8]
If biological sex divides people into women and men, gender is the focus of women and men to separate their place in society. The fact that women and men in the society can find and determine their place, the state creates the same conditions and opportunities for them, serves as the basis for ensuring gender equality in public.
In our country, a new direction in the field of law and legal creativity-gender - legal expertise has been
introduced in this high legal force legislation aimed at ensuring equal rights and opportunities for women and men. This is an analysis of the compliance of gender-legal expertise with the normative-legal documents and its projects with the principles of ensuring equal rights and guarantees of opportunities for women and men. In accordance with Article 4 of this law, principles such as legality, democracy, equality for women and men, non-discrimination on sex, openness and transparency mean the basic principles of ensuring equal rights and guarantees of opportunities for women and men [9].
The powers to conduct Gender-legal expertise imposed on all state bodies and other organizations. Each of them, proceeding from the direction of its activities, analyzes the normativelegal documents and its projects and accepts the conclusion of genderlegal expertise. In addition, the determination of the issue of maintaining gender statistics is one of the main norms reflected in this act. According to the norm, the state statistical bodies on the basis of gender indicators collect statistical information that reflects the state of women and men in all spheres of society's life, process, store, analyze and publish it. In order to prevent gender discrimination of women and
girls, the commission on the issues of ensuring gender equality was established in the Republic of Uzbekistan. Its main task is the implementation of a single state policy in the field of ensuring equal rights and opportunities for women and men. It provides information to the "Oliy Majlis" every year on the development and implementation of state programs, National Action Plans and strategies in this area. It carries out cooperation with international organizations, relevant bodies of foreign countries in the field of ensuring equal rights and opportunities for women and men in compliance with international standards in this regard.
Another notable aspect of the act is that it contains norms for maintaining gender equality in ensuring the political, social and economic rights of people. In particular, in the field of public service, requirements were established such as ensuring equal rights and opportunities for women and men, for example, allowing the use of temporary special measures to ensure the implementation of gender policy, which stipulates a quota system for the recruitment of employees of the same sex, taking into account the position categories of employees in the public service, In addition, the political parties provided
for the provision of equal rights and opportunities for women and men in the nomination of candidates to the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis and the deputies of local councils. After all, according to articles 70 and 91 of the Electoral Code, the number of women should be at least thirty percent of the total number of candidates for deputies specified by the political party [10].
This norm fully corresponds to the basic principles of ensuring equal rights and guarantees of opportunities for women and men. By act, in the economic sphere, guarantees of equal rights and opportunities for women and men are also established, according to which, regardless of the form of state bodies and property, the leaders of the organization are obliged to ensure equal access to the resources of society. The state provides equal rights and opportunities for women and men in carrying out entrepreneurial activities.
By the way, the Prohibition of discrimination on sex in the use of legal rights and Freedoms does not apply to some social relations. Indeed, the establishment of differences in the regulation of reproductive health in the protection of women and men's Labor, the provision of recommendations on
professional skills, the order and conditions of detention, the storage of punishment in places of execution, as well as other measures of legal effect are not considered discrimination on sex.
If we look at the statistics, in our country in 2017 year girls accounted for 50% of primary education, and in secondary school-54%. According to statistics in 2018 year, the number of women in higher education has increased and 40% of students are women, which means 36% more than the figure in 2011 year. The literacy rate of women constitutes 99.98%, that is, one of the highest in the world [11]. Uzbekistan is worth it to be proud. However, this does not necessarily mean that we have achieved the full result.
In our country, the implementation of the above work is on the same:
> this is a systematic and continuous process - the formation of a culture of equality of men and women in cooperation with the general public and civil institutions of Uzbekistan;
> ensuring gender equality in the joint and co - operation activities of all spheres of society-state structures, public organizations, business entities of the OIC, trade
unions and broad layers of the population;
> change of social and cultural patterns of women and men's behavior;
> elimination of old attitudes toward the role of women and men in society;
> creation of the information base of gender-educated students necessary to organize the targeted activities of all layers of society;
> at the level of the regions, it is necessary to conduct regular gender analysis and monitoring of the gender situation, as well as all series of gender issues.
In conclusion, the international experience shows that gender reform for our state, the implementation of women's rights and opportunities, serves as an important factor in solving many important issues our country faces. As a result of such reforms, sustainable growth rates of the economy are ensured in the relevant countries, the creation of a highpotential additional labor force, the decline in unemployment rates, the elimination of social inequality, the reduction in the number of population in need of social protection, the strengthening of social stability and other solutions to life problems have been achieved.
REFERENCES:
1. Constitution Of The Republic Of Uzbekistan
2. Family Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan
3. Labor Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan
4. Criminal Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan
5. "On measures of implementation of national goals and objectives of Uzbekistan in the field of sustainable development in the period up to 2030"
6. https://atm.andmiedu.uz/2017-2021-yillarda-ozbekiston-respublikasini-rivojlantirishning-beshta-ustuvor-yonalishi-boyicha-harakatlar-strategiyasi/
7. https://m.kun.uz/uz/news/2019/09/03/prezident-xotin-qizlar-va-erkaklar-uchun-teng-huquq-hamda-imkoniyatlar-kafolatlari-togrisidagi-qonunni-imzoladi
8. http://uza.uz/uz/society/gender-tenglik-ta-minlanadi-17-09-2019
9. "On guarantees of equal rights and opportunities for women and men" act.
10. Election Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan
11. https://stat.uz/uploads/docs/talim_dekabr_2018_uz.pdf
