ODIHR and UN Women highlight challenges facing abandoned women from migrant households in Tajikistan

The challenge of re-integrating abandoned wives of labour migrants into socio-economic life in Tajikistan is the focus of a conference in Dushanbe organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and UN Women on 12-13 September 2012.

In a country where more than 700,000 men emigrated abroad in search of work in 2010 alone, the conference will bring together around 60 participants from national and local governments, civil society and international organizations, to discuss how to improve the situation of the women left behind and, in particular, the women abandoned by their migrant husbands.

During the event, ODIHR will present its “Assessment of the Social and Economic Inclusion of Women from Migrant Households in Tajikistan”, which provides statistics and a synopsis of the current challenges through a comparative perspective across four geographical regions in Tajikistan. UN Women will present its experience on the provision of support to migrant families to improve their economic opportunities, and also on the promotion of women’s needs and priorities with regard to national and local development policy. As a result, 1,650 members of migrant families in three districts of the Sughd region are now supported by UN Women to help them undertake sustainable economic initiatives.

The ODIHR assessment report makes recommendations to national and local government authorities on how policy and legislative frameworks for the provision of support services to abandoned migrant women can be further strengthened.

Based on the report, participants at the conference will discuss its findings as the foundation for an action plan for local authorities on how to promote the access of women to public services and social and economic opportunities through legislation and policymaking, how to build the capacity of institutions to assist women from migrant households, and how to raise awareness of the challenges these women face. Participants are also expected to elaborate practical policy-related recommendations on improving the status of the most vulnerable families of migrants by strengthening their access to economic resources.

The conference is part of ODIHR’s continuing activities to assist participating States, upon request, in protecting the rights of migrants and migrant families, and UN Women’s activities within the Central Asia Regional Migration Programme, implemented jointly with the International Organization for Migration and the World Bank, with the support of the Government of the United Kingdom.