Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- On 23 November, a roundtable for local journalists titled “16 days against violence against women” was held in Jizzakh. Joint project of Uzbekistan Women’s Committee and UNDP “Legislative and Institutional Capacity Development for Women’s Empowerment in Uzbekistan”, as well as NGO Istiqbolli Avlod, organized the event, which is dedicated to International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, observed worldwide from 25 November to 10 December.

The roundtable is aimed at assisting to overcome settled stereotypes in mass media of Uzbekistan and informing about launch of regional campaign on preventing violence against women. The campaign will be held from 25 November to 10 December 2009.

UNDP project in cooperation with NGO Istiqbolli Avlod are planning to hold training, meetings, seminars, discussions on such topics as “Women and rights”, “Mechanisms of women’s rights protection”, “16 days against violence”. The competition for journalists covering life of women and their families was announced within the roundtable.

The media campaign is aimed at improving knowledge of public and population on issues of violence against women. It is directed at developing and strengthening of cooperation between authorities, NGOs and mass media in solving problems of violence, promoting legal knowledge among population, boosting creative and professional works of journalists, supporting their professional initiatives and ideas, covering issues of crime against women and determining the best journalistic works and encouraging their authors.

It is also planned to hold action among public, including student audience. Simultaneously, the competition of paintings and essays on the issue will be held. In connection with this, it is planned to hold classroom hours and lessons for children in cooperation with regional department of public education.

The population of the region will receive information on violence during 16 days through regional television and radio channels.

The UNDP project “Legislative and Institutional Capacity Development for Women’s Empowerment in Uzbekistan” has been implemented in collaboration with the Women’s Committee of Uzbekistan. The project is aimed at supporting and building the capacity of government, civil society and mass media in reducing the gender gaps via raising awareness on and implementing the recommendations of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW Committee) given to Uzbekistan in August 2006.