UNODC, Uzbekistan Work Together to Prevent Violence Against Women and Children through Educational Tools, E4J

Poor educational attainment, child maltreatment or exposure to violence in the family, harmful use of alcohol, attitudes condoning violence and gender inequality are risk factors for intimate partner violence.

School educators can play an important role in preventing violence against women and girls. They are among those who can affect or guide children and parents to a life free from violence.

With this idea in mind, the UNODC Regional Office for Central Asia partnered with the Ministry of Public Education of the Republic of Uzbekistan to conduct a training for secondary school teachers from Samarkand, Djizak, Bukhara and Navoiy regions of Uzbekistan. The training, which was held in Samarkand city on 27-28 November 2019, is part of UNODC's global Education for Justice (E4J) initiative.

Raising legal awareness and legal culture in society and strengthening the rule of law are priorities for Uzbekistan with two key laws adopted recently - the Law "On guarantees of equal rights and opportunities for women and men" and the Law "On protecting women from harassment and violence." The two laws are designed to promote and ensure equal opportunities and participation of women and men in public affairs; development and implementation of gender policies, government programs and strategies to protect women from harassment and violence, among others.

At the training,  UNODC expert, Ms. Indira Mukimova, informed the participants on the goals of the UN's International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Woman (every year on November 25) and the related " 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence" campaign. Ms. Mukimova discussed various multi-stakeholder tools, which can be useful for secondary level educators, such as the "Respect" guide for designing, planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluating programs to prevent and address violence against women, as well as the "Inspire" handbook to implement 7 strategies to prevent violence against children.

Participants practiced the use of various Education for Justice tools, which can be used to promote a culture of lawfulness among youth and encourage school students to develop skills of critical thinking, to identify an discuss moral and ethical dilemmas, and to challenge harmful beliefs, norms and stereotypes, in particular those that uphold male privilege and female subordination and that justify violence against women and  stigmatize survivors.

UNODC supports global activism to end violence against women and works to strengthen   criminal justice responses, prevention and advocacy, including by civil society organizations, based on a whole-of-society approach to end violence against women in such dimensions as drugs, crime, terrorism and HIV prevention.

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