The Forum of Women's NGOs of Kyrgyzstan
The Forum of Women's NGOs is a non-profit NGO created in 1994 to address the lack of women's participation in Kyrgyzstan's regional, local, and national political structures. The Forum is a network of over 85 separate Kyrgyz NGOs committed to protecting women's rights, promoting gender equality, and strengthening the role of local civil societies.
The Forum's platform stresses that the importance of women's participation in the political process of Kyrgyzstan is central to the country's development in the areas of:
- women's rights (as required in the constitution of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan, CEDAW, and the Beijing Platform);
- high- quality leadership;
- guaranteeing steady development;
- securing democracy;
- wiping out corruption;
- providing better positions for women civil servants and reshaping state programs to reflect women's interests.
Recent campaigns undertaken by the Forum endeavor to raise awareness of violence against women, human trafficking and women's human rights. The Forum also integrates international gender equality standards such as those contained in CEDAW and the Bejing Platform into the framework of their programs.
Since 2005, the Forum has been working on the program "50 Women in Politics." This four-year program seeks to increase gender equality in Kyrgyzstan's political system and aims to empower women's political leadership capacity by increasing the number of women participating in the next set of regional and local elections. The ultimate goal is to facilitate the election of female candidates in the 2010 parliamentary elections.
Implementation of these programs will promote change in Kyrgyzstan's political climate, where women's rights legislation has languished since Kyrgyzstan's secession from the Soviet Union in 1991. Today, women have no representation in Kyrgyzstan's national parliament and only 4.3% representation in local government bodies. The participation of women in decision-making capacities in all levels of government is vital to build sustainable democracy in Kyrgyzstan.