Dear participants,

First of all, I would like to join the congratulations on the occasion of International Women's Day 8 March.

Civil society in Kyrgyz Republic is well developed.

Currently ten thousand non-governmental organizations and civic associations are registered in Kyrgyzstan and most of them are involved in issues of women's rights and gender equality.

During the years of independence Government of Kyrgyz Republic has established constant and effective cooperation with civil society and international organizations.

The cooperation is carried out in many spheres and today I would like to pay attention to several of them. Women's rights promotion, economic conditions of women, social and political aspects of women's rights' implementation.

In sphere of women's rights' promotion constant advocacy is being realized. The positive example of cooperation between public bodies, civil society and international organization in this sphere is the annual event called "Sixteen Days of Activism to Tackle Violence Against Women" which take place from 25 November to 10 December. This event unite efforts of the UN agencies, international donor agencies and civic associations of Kyrgyzstan aimed at arranging different information campaigns.

The other positive example of such information campaign is the TV report named "Gender Equality as Guarantee of Sustainable Development" prepared by Public Television and Radio Broadcasting Company of Kyrgyz Republic in cooperation with the UN-Women office in Kyrgyzstan and UNDP-UNEP Poverty-Environment initiative. The TV report was dedicated to the role of women in contribution to local communities' development.

In order to struggle against such negative things like domestic violence, forced marriages and marriges of underage marriages, bride kidnappings and other crimes against women Government of the Kyrgyz Republic is carrying out important reforms in the sphere of national legislation to make punishment tougher for individuals committing the above-mentioned crimes.

In the sphere of improvement of women's economic situation main efforts are concentrated at broadening of access to financial sources, promotion of decent working conditions and education of needful job skills.

In this dimension Government of the Kyrgyz Republic together with international and civil organizations arrange and conduct annual fairs for craftswomen called "Oymo", and Republican Conferences of Rural Women dedicated to propaganda of successful results of rural women's activity and exchange of experience on how to improve women's living conditions in country areas of Kygyzstan.

Due to implementation of Acceleration of Rural Women’s Economic Empowerment Programme in the Kyrgyz Republic by UN-Women, other UN agencies and international donor organizations many women from poor rural districts of Kyrgyzstan managed to increase effectiveness of their agricultural practices and increase welfare of their families.

In social and political dimension Government of the Kyrgyz Republic is working towards promotion of more fair representation of women in public bodies of Kyrgyzstan.

Very important step in this dimension is the Law On Government's Guarantees of equal rights and opprtunities for men and women accepted on 4 August 2008. Due to the law we have first female leaders in Supreme Court, Office of Attorney General, Central Commission on Elections and Referendums. In 2017 the representation of women in the Supreme Court reached 44 per cent. But the main symbol of the Kyrgyz Republic's achievements in field of gender equality was the Presidency of H.E. Mrs. Roza Otunbaeva. The first female President not only in Kyrgyzstan but in whole Central Asia.

With the participation of the Parliament of the Kyrgyz Republic the First Convention of the Female Deputies of Local Legislation Bodies of Kyrgyzstan took place in January 2017. The participants discussed results of the elections to local legislations bodies of 2015-2016, difficulties during the elections which female deputies faced and ways to overcome the difficulties.

Kyrgyzstan as the country dedicated to further implementation of gender policy accepted in 2012 the National Strategy on Achieving Gender Equality before 2020 which contained the dimensions and priorities of development announced by Me today.

I am sure that the National Strategy's implementation will contribute to achievement of the Goal 5 of SDG-2030.

Allow me to congratulate all of You with International Women's Day 8 March. I wish You success in further development and implementation of gender equality principles and mechanisms of women's rights protection.

Thank You.