The project aims at building capacity of women’s NGOs in CEE/CIS to use OP CEDAW to forward women’s rights. It is planned for two years 2008-2009 and will been implemented in two steps. During the first step women’s NGOs in four countries: Belarus , Georgia , Republic of Moldova and Ukraine , will be involved. The NGOs from Armenia , Azerbaijan , Tajikistan and Uzbekistan will join the project in 2009.

The project was launched in January and is now being implemented in partnership of Karat Coalition with partner organizations in Belarus , Georgia , Moldova , Ukraine and with IWRAW Asia Pacific.

Although the significant number of women’s NGOs in CEE/CIS countries have used CEDAW reporting mechanism to influence the state policy in the area of gender equality, most women’s NGOs in the region lack the practical knowledge of OP CEDAW and of how it can be used to counteract the discrimination of women and violation of women’s rights. There is also no specific regional forum to share experience and information related to the issue. The project aims at filling this gaps and at developing the strategic approach to using OP CEDAW.

The project aims at building capacity of women’s NGOs in CEE/CIS to use OP CEDAW to counteract discrimination against women.

This will be achieved by:

A Resource Guide on advocating for the implementation of CEDAW

through its Optional Prototcol

(in Russian)

Increasing capacity and skills of women’s NGOs in 8 CEE/CIS countries to bring cases to CEDAW under the OP;
Supporting national lobbying campaigns in the countries where the OP has not been ratified yet;
Identifying areas of women’s rights violation that could be addressed by seeking remedies through the OP CEDAW mechanism;
Providing easily available information on how to use OP CEDAW;
Creating platform for sharing experience and information.

The project activities include:

Trainings for representatives of women’s NGOs aimed at increasing the understanding of CEDAW convention, general recommendations and Optional Protocol as tools for strengthening women’s rights and at developing skills to file a complaint to the CEDAW Committee under the Optional Protocol;
Strategic meetings of the project partners;
Meetings/seminars/round tables at national level;
On-line kits on OP CEDAW as a tool for advancing women’s rights and gender equality;
Lobbying for ratification of OP CEDAW where relevant;
Media campaigns.

The implementation of the project is possible thanks to the financial support of OXFAM Novib