16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence campaign in Tajikistan
As part of the global campaign 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence, the OSCE Programme Office in Dushanbe launched a nationwide awareness-raising drive targeting five remote areas. The campaign was conducted from 25 November to 10 December 2017 and covered 30 settlements. It reached 1,892,000 people across Tajikistan through TV and radio broadcasts. 1,306 people – including 915 women and 391 men - were involved directly through information sessions, theatre performances and roundtables discussions.
The 2017 statistics from the OSCE-supported Women’s Resource Centres and Tajikistan’s Interior Ministry showed that most of the victims of domestic violence were women and girls. Women face specific barriers to justice, not only in cases of domestic violence, but also because they lack knowledge about human rights in other areas of their lives such as education. Therefore, the focus of the campaign was on domestic violence and girls’ access to education.
On 27 November 2017 a mobile theatre performance about dealing with domestic violence and girls’ access to education took place in Secondary School No. 10 in the Khuroson District of the Ayni Jamoat. It was organized by the Programme Office in Dushanbe jointly with Kurgan-Tyube’s Regional Theatre of Musical Comedy as well as the NGO Marifat. The performance was followed by a discussion on girls’ access to education and how to deal with domestic violence. The event gathered around 150 people of different ages. Orange envelopes, which contained the text of the Law on Prevention of Domestic Violence and a booklet with information about services available to survivors and victims of domestic violence, were distributed among the participants.
