Kazakhstan will strengthen the role of women in ensuring peace and security

Issues of ensuring the protection of women and strengthening their role in conflict prevention were discussed at a round table meeting on the eve of International Women's Day.

The meeting was attended by Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of the Republic of Kazakhstan Aida Balayeva, Commissioner for Human Rights in Kazakhstan Elvira Azimova, Chairman of the National Commission for Women and Family and Demographic Policy under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Lazzat Ramazanova, representatives of government agencies, international organizations and the diplomatic corps.

As the Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Aida Balayeva noted, "The current situation in the world is characterized by increasing confrontation and instability. Negative consequences endanger entire regions, generate destabilization and a global threat. In this context, the resolutions of the UN Security Council on the agenda "Women, peace and security. We know that sustainable peace cannot be achieved without the security and equality of women".

In order to implement nine UN Security Council resolutions, the Government of Kazakhstan approved an Action Plan until 2025 in December last year. The plan includes specific measures to ensure women's equal participation in conflict prevention and resolution, ensuring peace and security, preventing violence against women, raising awareness, strengthening interaction with civil society in conflict prevention and protection of women.

"Kazakhstan has already achieved some success at the level of taking effective institutional measures to promote women in all spheres of activity. The Concept of Family and Gender Policy until 2030 is being implemented and improved in the country. Work is underway to establish a Central Asian knowledge center in the field of equality and empowerment of women. A progressive decision has been made to completely abolish the list that restricted the use of women's labor," Aida Balayeva also noted.

In turn, Elvira Azimova focused on the key activities of the plan and stated the need to develop legislative and practical tools to strengthen the potential of women so that they can be active participants in the processes of preventive diplomacy and recovery.

"It is possible and necessary to solve security issues not with weapons, but through peacekeeping mechanisms. Recent events prove the need to strengthen the process of teaching women the skills of preventive diplomacy and mediation, the formation of a pool of negotiators from among representatives of State bodies and representatives of civil society. The main goal is to teach the effective use of peaceful conflict resolution tools and to consolidate a clear scenario of their application at the level of the law," Elvira Azimova stressed.

She also added that in Kazakhstan it is necessary to introduce a clear mechanism of interaction between state bodies, social services and NGOs to help women in a state of emergency.

The participants of the round table noted that the adoption of the national plan demonstrates the understanding that the effective achievement of the tasks set is possible through the creation of conditions for women's participation in the security and law and order agenda.