Kyrgyzstan initiates the Inter-Agency Working Group on Elaboration of the National Action Plan on implementation of the UNSC Resolution 1325

During and after the conflict in the south of the country in 2010, women became not only the victims of cruel violence, but also were in the lead undertaking reconciliation and peace-building interventions in their communities. Two national level and several community level consultations were undertaken to stress the role of women in peacebuilding and reconciliation, as well as to raise issues of unaddressed problems related to women’s rights and access to services, empowerment and security. The need for a National Action Plan was voiced not only by women, but also by state authorities.

UN Women carried out a number of bilateral consultations with the government, parliament and the President’s Office and advocated for setting up a working group consisting of various ministries and agencies – to elaborate the NAP 1325. UN Women also repeatedly advocated for a wide consultative process with civil society, the Parliament and the expert community.

The government of Kyrgyzstan expresses its strong commitment to this work as well as the urgency of the matter and sets the priority for reviewing the first draft of the NAP already in the end of October 2012. Thus, an urgent need for technical support has been identified by the working group members and the further steps of NAP elaboration were comprised in the work plan.

Since the Government of Georgia has adopted a NAP on Women, Peace and Security in December 2011, as one of the first steps on the NAP development process, UN Women, within the framework of a EU funded Cross-regional programme “Women connect across conflicts” - has facilitated a two-day visit of Georgian delegates. The delegation, chaired by the Deputy Speaker of the Georgian Parliament and Chair of the Georgian Working Group on 1325, met with colleagues at the Kyrgyz Parliament, representative of government structures including the Head of the Kyrgyz working group and with representatives of the civil society to share their best practices and lessons learnt. The Georgian members of the working group also actively participated in the first day of the training for the Kyrgyz working group and presented the NAP development process in Georgia in its entirety by illustrating their experience, challenges encountered, tradeoffs, lessons learned, best practices and next steps.