About 25 journalists from various parts of Uzbekistan participated in the Summer School "Gender Awareness Through Mass Media", organized by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Country Office in Uzbekistan.

The summer school was aimed at raising awareness and knowledge about the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in the society, change gender stereotypes not just among ordinary population but also among professionals who work in this area.

The participants of the three-day summer school represented print and electronic media of Uzbekistan and took the sessions on gender equality, international documents on women’s rights, early marriages and improvement the professional skills of journalists.

The organizers of this summer school are the Women’s Committee of Uzbekistan and UNDP project "Legislative and Institutional Capacity Development for Women’s Empowerment in Uzbekistan". The project aims to support and build the capacity of the government, civil society and mass media in reducing the gender gaps via raising awareness of and implementing the recommendations of the CEDAW Committee to Uzbekistan. It is envisaged to achieve the goal via building the capacity of journalists, improving their professionalism and gender issues coverage in mass media.

The CEDAW Convention adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly, is an international documents on the rights of women. Uzbekistan was the first Central Asian country to ratify the convention in 1995 and has reported twice to the CEDAW Committee on its implementation.

It is expected that successful participants will be invited to participate in a follow up contest on the best coverage of gender issues in printed media, radio and TV. The contest will take place in the second half of 2007.

Ms Komila Rakhimova, UNDP Gender Specialist, said: "Competitive and professional coverage of gender issues and CEDAW Convention through mass media is an important step in improving the situation of women in Uzbekistan. Such educational events can help build the capacity of journalists by improving their professionalism and skills in covering gender issues."