KYRGYZSTAN: National Conference on "Women's Political Participation in the Constitutional Reform and Parliamentary Elections" Held in Bishkek

The Alliance of Women's Legislative Initiatives organized in Bishkek a National Conference on "Women's Political Participation in the Constitutional Reform and Parliamentary Elections" to develop a common position of the civil society organizations on women's participation in key political reforms and processes.

More than 130 women's activists, leaders of the political parties, human rights organizations, representatives of provisional Central Elections Committee, NGOs, mass media, youth organizations as well as the representatives of the Provisional government – Roza Otunbaeva, the President of the Kyrgyz Republic of the Transition Period, and Omurbek Tekebaev, a member of the Provisional Government and the Chairperson of the Constitutional Assembly of the Kyrgyz Republic took part in the Conference.

The Conference is organized with technical and financial support of the EC/UNDP Project on Constitutional Reform, UNDP Democratic Governance Programme and United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).

The gender activists attach an utmost importance to the Conference for women of various backgrounds, groups and regions have to urgently discuss and consolidate women's movement's successes such as gender analysis of legislation and gender quotas for women running the parliament. Another reason for the Conference was a need for further increase of women's political participation in the Constitutional Reform and Parliamentary Elections.

As Omurbek Tekebaev underlined in his address "Women have to take a chance of the current historic moment and to strengthen their positions in the politics to build strong democratic society and prosperous state".

During the Conference the participants made analysis of the women's participation in the previous elections, discussed the current challenges for women in 2010 elections, related to the mobilization of women and youth in the protest movements. Also the draft new Constitution and its gender dimension as well as the gender components of the platforms of the political parties, was discussed. A special attention was paid to the work with women's electorate and the strategies to prevent the manipulation of women in the regions as well as the phenomenon of women participants of the radical protest movement and cooperation with youth organizations.

The Conference concluded with unanimous adoption of "The Strategy for Increased Women's Political Participation in the Constitutional Reform and Parliamentary Elections.