Objectives;
Situation Analysis;
Strategy;
(Expected) Results / Outcome;
Major activities |
Background: Rural women remain the main vulnerable group of labor migrants, due to their lower labor skills, existing gender stereotypes and the danger of sexual coercion. Many of them have suffered human and labor rights’ abuses, especially in the cases of illegal migration and human trafficking. The governments of the Central Asian states cannot effectively respond to these challenges due to the lack of cooperation, absence of reliable statistics and analysis in this field, poor legislative framework, low awareness of the rural population on their rights, shortage of experience and expertise of the relevant government and non-government actors in dealing with labor migration issues, as well as a shortage of resources for job creation in villages and small cities.
In Uzbekistan, as it is stated in the “Welfare Improvement Strategy of Uzbekistan” (WIS) adopted at the Meeting of the Presidium of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan on August 27, 2007: “This problem of how to employ those who lost their jobs in the restructuring in rural areas, and also the problem of unemployment in the cities, is partly resolved through the temporary labor migration of rural inhabitants to the cities and also rural and urban inhabitants to other countries. According to estimates, the number of labor migrants has increased from 44,000 people in 2001 up to more than 330,000 people in 2006, and remittances sent back total about US$ 2 billion, thus mitigating the problems of employment, incomes and poverty.”
In 2007, UNDP implemented the project “Promotion of the rights of women migrant workers” that focused on the internal migration issues and comprised two main activities:
(a) sociological research on internal labor migration in Uzbekistan among women, legal and administrative protection of their rights, with recommendations for the relevant state bodies and civil society groups for solution of the problems identified, and
(b) raising of awareness and knowledge among government, law-enforcement, civil society bodies and general population on the rights of women labor migrants and victims of human trafficking. The data obtained by the research and their consequent discussion during the national seminar exposed the lacks of capacities of both governmental and civil society actors to address the issues of labour migration and to protect the rights of the migrant workers, especially women and children, on the regional level. Therefore, it was stated in the recommendation of the workshop that “the second phase of the project should concentrate on the efforts on the regional level.” Four main regions were identified thereby, on the outcomes of the research and data obtained during implementation of the Project, as the sites for the implementation of the Phase 2 of the Project: Tashkent region, Ferghana region, Jizzak region and in the Republic of Karakalpakstan.
Objectives: Four major interlinked objectives of the project will be:
1. To support the work of key operational government and civil society actors on the regional level in promotion of the rights of migrant workers through raising of awareness and knowledge on the situation of the labor migration among women, rights of women labor migrants and victims of human trafficking;
2. To contribute to the ongoing efforts to raise the awareness of the population and relevant bodies on the rights of migrant workers, on prevention of cases of enslavement of labor migrants and trafficking in women, and to promote reintegration of the migrant women/trafficked returnees into society (through job creation, loans, setting up own ventures, etc);
3. To conduct research and analysis in the field of labor migration for elaboration of national strategies to respond to the challenges of labor migration, promotion of migrant workers' rights, and improving the overall situation of the rural population in the sphere of employment;
4. To foster cooperation between government departments and civil society groups in the area of the promotion of the migrant workers’ rights and improvement of the employment situation in the rural area.
Consequently, the main objective of the Project is to improve the protection of human rights of the women involved in labour migration in Uzbekistan and to increase the quality of services provided by relevant government and nongovernmental bodies to women migrant workers and the victims of human trafficking. The Phase 2 of the Project will focus on the development of infrastructure and social services to the women migrant workers and members of their families, especially children, in four regions of Uzbekistan, identified by the outcomes of the Phase I: in the Tashkent region, Ferghana region, Jizzak region and in the Republic of Karakalpakstan.
Achievements and expected results: The main outcome of the Project is to enhance legal framework, monitoring and support mechanisms to be in place for human rights instruments.
Expected results of the Project are the following:
1) Awareness is raised among government, law-enforcement and civil society on the rights of women labor migrants;
2) Recommendations on improvement of the existing legislation related to the labor migration are provided;
3) Capacity of government and civil society is built through training programs and research on the rights of women migrant workers;
4) Knowledge is increased among general public about threats imposed by illegal labor migration and human trafficking;
5) Legal services are provided for human trafficking victims and labor migrants, as well as information for legal possibilities of labor migration;
6) Employment opportunities are improved through the design, support and implementation of the relevant educational and vocational projects in the rural area. |
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