OSCE supported training course for lawyers providing legal assistance to survivors of domestic violence in Tajikistan

The OSCE Programme Office in Dushanbe concluded a four-day training course for lawyers working in the field of domestic violence on 17 September 2021 in Dushanbe. Twenty-one lawyers from the OSCE-supported Women’s Resource Centres (WRCs) and local authorities from the Sughd, Khatlon, Rasht Valley regions, and Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region of Tajikistan attended.

Participants were familiarized with international and national mechanisms on domestic violence, laws on preventing domestic violence, the concept and definition of domestic violence, ways to identify types of domestic violence and skills for working with victims of domestic violence. Other topics covered were referral mechanisms of the victims to other support service providers according to the needs and mechanisms of recovering compensation for materials and moral damages to survivors of domestic violence in criminal and administrative cases.  

“The problem of domestic violence, the protection of the rights of women and children, the prevention of various types of violence, as well as regulatory legal acts are very relevant issues now,” said Dilfuza Davronova, specialist at the Department of Law and Work with Personnel of Tajikistan’s Committee on Women and Family Affairs in Dushanbe.

Fotima Tojiboeva, expert at the Committee for Women and Family Affairs of local executive body in the city of Isfara said: “For the staff of the Committee and  other relevant local authorities and civil society organizations such training is timely and is a benchmark for progress and the implementation of our activities. I have received clear and concise answers to most of the complex legal issues that I faced during supporting the victims of domestic violence.”

Maksatullo Hasanov, a lawyer from WRC “Zanoni Sharq” in Penjikent said: “The training provided me with a lot of new information and knowledge about international and UN recommendations on the prevention of domestic violence, the mechanism for the implementation of international legal acts and optional protocols, which is necessary for legal professionals.”

The OSCE Programme Office will continue to support the Government of Tajikistan in implementing the Law on Prevention of Domestic Violence. The Programme Office provides a comprehensive support to victims of domestic violence in the regions through a network of 14 OSCE-established WRCs in close partnership with local authorities.