Turkmenistan ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1997 and the Optional Protocol thereto in 2009, and in 2015 adopted the new Law of Turkmenistan “On State Guarantees for the Equal Rights and Equal Opportunities of Women and Men” and “The National Action Plan on Gender Equality in Turkmenistan for 2015-2020”.
The existing ‘Code of Turkmenistan on Social Protection of the Population’, ‘The Labor Code of Turkmenistan’, ‘The Family Code of Turkmenistan’ are all aimed at creating the necessary conditions for further expansion of participation of women in all spheres of State activities and society life and at lining regulatory and legal framework, policy and practice of Turkmenistan with international standards. However, these Conventions, including analytical interpretation and legal literature in general, are practically inaccessible to the public (for example, due to limited access to the Internet and an underdeveloped media system) and, therefore, are in practice not used. Women remain under-represented as entrepreneurs and do not have a basic experience to start a business. At this stage of development of market relations, there is a clear need for more detailed information about entrepreneurship as an attractive career for both young ladies and women who are considering starting-up a new business or returning back to work, there is a need for creating a solid legal database tailored for the use of them.
In view of the aforementioned, ‘Bosfor’ Organization together with the British Embassy and the GSP USAID Program (‘Government Support Program in Turkmenistan’), organized two one-day seminars on topics: ‘Implementation of International Legislation in Local Legislative Acts’ and ‘Secrets of Women’s Success in Business Administration’. Seminars were organized on January 19 and February 16, 2018 at the Conference Hall of ‘Bosfor’. Forty four participants attended the seminars, including representatives of the Labor Employment Administration of Ashgabat City, representatives of Turkmenistan’s healthcare, representatives of The Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Turkmenistan, women who are at the stage opening their own business and students of the last courses of universities, and others.
Three local experts Ms. Nabat Meleevna Babaeva, Mr. Lidia Begenchevna Kerimi and Ms. Zalina Rossoshanskaya introduced general patterns of interpretation of international law in the national legislation during the seminar. They gave an idea of entrepreneurship establishment for young women entrepreneurs, defined the organizational and legal forms of business, introduced the laws ‘On Small and Medium Enterprises’, ‘On the Enterprise’, ‘On Business’, as well as on conclusion of an employment contract, and familiarized with other rules and regulations concerning entrepreneurship.
They explained the participants about overall system of strategy and key directions of the policy of Turkmenistan regarding gender equality, about the perspective of integrated system of measures, taking into account new realities: market economy and social partnership.
The presentation was given on: ‘Women in the sphere of social labor relations (with gender aspect)’. This presentation covered the definitions of ‘the principle of equal rights for men and women, the main factors of gender discrimination in the sphere of labor relations, direct and indirect discrimination in labor relations’, by considering with participants some situational issues.
Expert Ms. Nabat Meleevna Babaeva gave a presentation on the Law ‘On State Guarantees for Equal Rights and Equal Opportunities for Women and Men’. Participants were divided into small groups to adopt their Law, namely the ‘Tree of Equality’, determined that the law should include a preamble (introduction), a disposition (description of the situation of the issue), hypotheses (under which circumstances a violation may occur) and sanctions (which carried out for punishment). The goal of this task was to determine priority and consistency of components of gender policy.
After joining the ‘Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women’, the State has taken all measures to implement effectively the rights of women in Turkmenistan. The Seminar on ‘Implementation of International Legislation’ underscored the need for knowledge in the implementation of the Law ‘On State Guarantees for Equal Rights and Equal Opportunities for Women and Men’, as well as the need for better understanding the significance of normative documents in the field of women’s rights and discrimination.
During the second Seminar, the practice of writing summaries and participation in certain types of interviews, the practice of drawing up a business plan by involving investors and creditors, establishment of an enterprise, development of a Company Charter, and designing of labor relations with employees were presented.
