RECOMMENDATIONS

To the Government of Uzbekistan:
· Enforce existing criminal laws against assault and prosecute perpetrators of domestic violence to the fullest extent of the law.
· Denounce publicly domestic violence and make information widely available about how victims can seek redress. Cooperate with non-governmental women's organizations to advertise anti-domestic violence public service messages and to publicize the existence of services for victims.
· Pass legislation to criminalize stalking. Provide in-depth training of police officers, prosecutors, judges, and mahalla officials to recognize cases of stalking and to intervene with criminal sanctions in a timely manner. Until legislation is passed, take affirmative measures to protect women from harassment and threats from their batterers, such as police protection, protection orders, and community sanctions.
· Pass legislation to create civil remedies, such as protection orders, for victims of domestic violence. The civil protection scheme selected should be appropriate to the conditions in Uzbekistan, ensuring that it is accessible to women and enforceable. After passage of the civil remedies legislation, the Uzbek government should train police officers and local officials to carry out the enforcement mechanism. In addition, the government should instigate a nation-wide public education campaign to alert citizens to the new law.
· Amend the rape law to clarify that rape within marriage is a criminally punishable offense, and train law enforcement officials to respond effectively to these charges.
· Compile accurate and comprehensive data on the number of domestic violence complaints filed with the police, on the number of misdemeanor citations issued, criminal cases opened, on the number of convictions, and the level of sentencing. The relevant ministries should create and implement a coordinated system for collecting that information and should make those statistics publicly available.
· Allocate and ensure the equitable distribution of funds for the provision of social services to the victims of domestic violence and their children.
· Amend the criminal procedure code to allow ordinary medical records to be submitted as evidence for the purpose of domestic violence prosecutions;
· Require a training program on domestic violence for all existing and incoming police officers. The training program should include: procedures for efficient intake of all domestic violence complaints; legal training on laws against domestic violence; creation of a protocol for handling domestic violence complaints; and training on the dynamics of domestic violence.
· Require a training program on domestic violence as part of the curriculum at medical schools and institutes. Such curricula should include training on how to document injuries related to battering-including marital rape-and how best to serve patients who exhibit such injuries.
· Admit women to the Ministry of Internal Affairs academy for training as law-enforcement officers, as was the case before 1998. Consider creating domestic violence units within police departments staffed with male and female officers.
· Train local government functionaries including mahalla officials, women's committee officials, and others under the rubric of female suicide prevention to prioritize protection of the complainant in their responses to domestic violence appeals.
· By law and practice, domestic violence should be sufficient grounds for granting a divorce without a waiting period. Courts and mahallas should also end practices that discriminate against women who attempt to initiate divorce proceedings. Judges should initiate criminal proceedings as required by law when allegations of domestic violence are made in divorce proceedings.
· Ensure that women who find themselves abandoned for second wives taken in religious ceremonies may obtain divorces without a waiting period and that their rights to joint property, alimony, and child support are protected.
· Amend the polygyny criminal statute to cover multiple simultaneous marriages, whether contracted through civil or religious procedures, whether or not the wives live in the same household. Enforce the law against polygyny.
· Encourage state media to cooperate with NGOs to develop public service announcements and other programs publicizing domestic violence cases and legal remedies for domestic violence.
· Cooperate with non-governmental organizations to ensure that state-sponsored pre-family education programs include components on domestic violence and on the available remedies for domestic violence. These programs should avoid reinforcing discriminatory attitudes toward women.
· Complete and submit all reporting required by the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights. That reporting should include information on violations of women's human rights, including statistics on domestic violence.
· Carry out the recommendations of the United Nations Committee on the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), including taking urgent measures to overcome traditional stereotypes regarding the role of women and men in the society.

To Bilateral and Multilateral Donors:
Donor organizations have squandered time, funds and good will through a lack of coordination and even competition among agencies. Positive initiatives, such as the donor community gender listserve, are to be commended. But far more cooperation is needed to remedy the current situation. Specifically, we recommend:

· Commit to raising the issue of violence against women as a part of ongoing dialogue with the government of Uzbekistan on human rights issues, and urge it to implement CEDAW recommendations and those contained in this report.
· Shift some resources from funding of training seminars for NGO activists to end-user assistance, with particular focus on the need for legal assistance programs and public education initiatives.
· Include local NGO leaders in curriculum development and as experts in the distribution of funding. Scale back or cancel training seminars found to be repetitive or irrelevant. Rely on local organizations and other experts for direction as to the usefulness and cultural appropriateness of programs.
· Coordinate to provide effective training programs and grant schemes. Avoid competing for program participants. Instead, coordinate schedules, cooperate on curriculum development to prevent duplication, and agree upon geographical coverage for each program. Increase resources devoted to monitoring results of grants. Develop comprehensive and effective evaluation mechanisms to collect feedback from program participants. Implement the changes recommended in the evaluations.
· Fund legal assistance programs for women seeking to escape domestic violence and battering relationships. Provide training for paralegals or advocates to assist women in navigating the criminal and civil legal institutions. Provide funding for lawyers to take domestic violence cases and training for lawyers considering taking such cases.

To the United Nations:
· Assist the Uzbek government in collecting statistics on violence against women as well as on other indicators of women's status. Make these statistics publicly available.
· The Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, it Causes and Consequences should request an invitation to visit Uzbekistan to examine the state response to domestic violence.
· UNIFEM should expand the focus of its Working Group on Women in Central Asia to include discussions of violence against women in Uzbekistan.

To the OSCE:
· Act on the recommendations adopted at the June 1999 supplemental meeting on Gender Issues and insist that monitoring and reporting on women's rights are a priority in all OSCE work.

To the European Union:
· Raise the issue of violence against women in meetings with senior Uzbek officials, including in the context of the EU-Uzbekistan Cooperation Council meetings, and the EU-Uzbekistan Interparliamentary Dialogue. Encourage the government of Uzbekistan to carry fully out these recommendations and those issued by CEDAW, to enforce laws against domestic violence and to collect accurate data on the prevalence of domestic violence in Uzbek families.
· Commission an independent and thorough evaluation of the effectiveness of projects funded to date. Continue TACIS funding for women's human rights programs in Uzbekistan, modifying programs as indicated by the results of the independent evaluation.
· Fund legal aid programs for victims of domestic violence as well as for victims of other serious human rights abuses in Uzbekistan.

To the U.S. Government:
· Raise the issue of violence against women in meetings with senior Uzbek officials. Encourage the government of Uzbekistan to enforce laws against domestic violence and to collect accurate data on the prevalence of domestic violence in Uzbek families.
· Commission an independent and thorough evaluation of the effectiveness of projects funded to date. Continue USAID funding for women's human rights programs in Uzbekistan, modifying programs as indicated by the results of the independent evaluation.
· Fund legal aid programs for victims of domestic violence as well as for victims of other serious human rights abuses in Uzbekistan.
· Increase reporting on domestic violence, gender discrimination, and the government's willingness to hold perpetrators accountable in the State Department Annual Reports on Human Rights.

To the World Bank:
· Conduct a country gender review to assist in the formulation of lending programs and to ensure that gender considerations are incorporated into country strategies. Coordinate new gender programs with existing activities sponsored by other donors;
· Form external gender consultative groups including Uzbek NGO leaders and social scientists to advise staff on gender issues in Uzbekistan;
· Establish programs to increase women's access to the judicial system and to educate judges about domestic violence as a part of any future programs in legal and judicial reform;
· Incorporate training on domestic violence into the World Bank Health Project for Uzbekistan, including 1) training on screening for and treatment of domestic violence by doctors particularly in rural areas; 2) training on domestic violence, including marital rape, for the new cadre of medical personnel; 3) capacity building at the national level for the collection and dissemination of statistics on domestic violence and the medical cost of domestic violence. In addition, include information on domestic violence in training programs designed to strengthen primary health care services. In the medical education component of the health project, include training for trainers on domestic violence for practicing physicians, medical students, and nurses.
· Recognizing the negative economic effects of gender discrimination and domestic violence in particular, any programs to provide poor women with income-generating activities or micro-credits should include domestic violence education as a part of the associated training activities, in order to inform program participants about the currently available forms of relief from and redress for domestic abuse.

To the Asian Development Bank:
· Integrate women's human rights into development of the Senior Secondary Education Project, funded with a $57 million loan from the ADB and carried out by the Ministry of Higher and Senior Secondary Education. Include seminars by experts on violence against women in all local and international training programs for school directors, staff, teachers, and policy makers.

· Continue to target women in all poverty reduction programs in Uzbekistan, as well as through the Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise (SME) Development program, funded with a $50 million credit line from the ADB, and to ensure that women have access to support for small and medium enterprises, in light of the need for women to gain economic independence in order to escape from violent husbands.

· Include domestic violence education as a part of the training activities for all income-generation programs targeted to women, in order to inform program participants about the currently available forms of relief from and redress for domestic abuse.