Championing Gender in Uzbekistan: Interview with John MacGregor, OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan
A new wind is blowing for women in Uzbekistan, with the government having passed important legislation last year on gender equality and on combating domestic violence. Canadian diplomat John MacGregor, the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan, received the OSCE Gender Champion award for his leadership in supporting the government’s new agenda. In a society where the topic of violence against women was considered taboo until recently, he was able to bring together a group of prominent Uzbek men to publicly speak out, each in his own words, against raising one’s hand against a woman.
You received the OSCE Gender Champion Award largely for your success in raising the awareness of men from Uzbekistan of the need to get involved in combating gender-based violence. How did that happen?
It started last fall as we were looking ahead to the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, the campaign that happens at the end of every year. In September I attended a meeting on women’s issues of deputy hakims [regional administrators] from all around the country. This was a room full of women – maybe 50 women and five men, myself included. I remember thinking: “You know, this question of preventing domestic violence and advancing women’s priorities is not something that should just be discussed by women. There needs to be men involved.”
The other pivotal event was a meeting of a group of male prosecutors and male police. Oftentimes when I am at these meetings, I say my introductory words in the Uzbek language – I make it a point to try to speak Uzbek as much as I can, stay around for a few minutes and leave. But on this occasion, the topic intrigued me, I wanted to see where the discussion went, so I stayed. When they were just about ready to break for coffee, I asked to speak one more time. This time I spoke off the cuff in English with translation. I said I was very glad to see so many men in the room, because preventing domestic violence is not just something that women should discuss among themselves, there needs to be men involved as well, because men are the problem. And then I said: “Every man in this room needs to be part of the solution, because if you are not part of the solution you are allowing the problem to continue.” I felt quite strongly that day and as I was watching their faces and I could see that, yes, they were taking this in positively.
Every man in this room needs to be part of the solution, because if you are not part of the solution you are allowing the problem to continue.
Then as we were preparing for the 16 Days campaign, Lola Maksudova, our National Project Officer and Gender Focal Point, had the idea of bringing prominent men together to do a video in Uzbek speaking out against violence against women. This was to be a diverse group, men who would be recognizable and whom other men in this country look up to: a popular singer, a well-known athlete, a boxer, the head of the national human rights centre and a senator. We were even able to get the deputy chair of the Muslim board of Uzbekistan on board, and he made a strong statement. I tried to do most of my part in Uzbek and I managed to even recite a poem – a traditional poem about respect for women.
The video turned out to be very successful; it was widely shared on social media and aired repeatedly on TV. We´re planning to do more; I hope we will be able to keep this group alive at least as long as I am here. I am a little more recognizable and have a slightly higher profile than I did when I arrived four years ago. And I am hoping that through my encouragement – and leadership maybe – men will understand that they need to be part of the solution.
Involving men in combating gender-based violence is only one part of what the OSCE under your leadership has done to promote gender equality in Uzbekistan. How did promoting a strong role for women come to be a priority for you?
To my mind three factors came together to allow this to happen. First, my personal background. My mother was a professional – an accountant, something that was quite unusual for her generation. And my wife is a paralegal and she had her career. So, my mother and my wife: both professional women. From early childhood I recognized that there is a solid place for women in society, not just in the kitchen.
Second, the government’s initiative. From early 2018, the President of Uzbekistan has been saying in his speeches that women need to get more involved in contributing to the economic output of the country. Uzbekistan’s national leadership has carried out commendable reforms and these include promoting gender equality and nominating women to decision-making positions in the government. Some of the most compelling gender champions are women, such as Tanzila Narbaeva, who was appointed to the senate and elected Chairperson of the Senate and who is currently the chairperson of the National Commission on Gender Equality of the Republic of Uzbekistan.
The third factor is the strong OSCE commitment to gender equality. We got very involved in responding to the renewed national priorities of advancing gender equality and empowering women from 2018. We began providing women entrepreneurs across the country with training, giving women the tools they need to be leaders and managers. This was done in partnership with the Westminster International University in Tashkent; they had some really top-notch trainers who were able to connect with the women and really make a difference.
In the summer of 2019 two important pieces of legislation, one on domestic violence and one on gender equality, were passed by the parliament, approved by the senate and signed by the president. So, by the fall the OSCE was getting more involved than ever, trying to help support the implementation of the new legislation.
How have you been able to assist women affected by the COVID-19 pandemic?
Reports from around the world show that domestic violence has grown during the COVID-19 pandemic. And so, we’ve tried to step up to do what we can, together with government partners and United Nations agencies, such as the United Nations Population Fund. We are working jointly to help women get legal representation and to help them to get a restraining order if they need it. A new hotline has been made available and we are supporting that.
Another thing we have done is donated personal protective equipment to the government for use by women and children in penal colonies. COVID-19 is the worst transnational threat that most of us have seen in our lifetimes. It goes well beyond being a simple health issue. We need to respond transnationally and we need to respond in all three dimensions of security.
So, we’re helping the country to hurry up its implementation of the new advance passenger information systems (APIS), because we foresee that when the vaccine is developed there could be a place in APIS for vaccination information to be included for passengers that are arriving.
In the economic dimension, we’ve developed a website for male and female labour migrants in countries of destination like the Russian Federation and Kazakhstan and within Uzbekistan, with information for female migrants and their children, on social services for example.
We’re thinking about how small- and medium-sized enterprises have been impacted by COVID-19, and through our training, together with Westminster University, we are trying to support women in particular. If we can help them recover their small businesses and their economic activity, that will go a long way to supporting the country as well.
We are doing so many different things cross-dimensionally that contribute to supporting women and that have an overall positive effect. That’s one of the brilliant things about OSCE field operations: with the right ideas and the right management by dedicated staff as I have and mission leadership, and receptive officials in the host country, you can do a lot of things. As an OSCE official and for me personally it really does my heart good, and my brain, to see this kind of strong support and strong statements from the national leadership. It really makes a tremendous difference.
With the right ideas and the right management and mission leadership, and receptive officials in the host country, you can do a lot of things.
And you are seeing the impact?
We saw it for example in the parliamentary elections in December. The five political parties nominated many more women than they have in the past: depending on the party the percentage of women nominated varied from 33 per cent right up to 48 per cent. Eventually, the number of women represented in the parliament was doubled, so this is a really strong statement.
Also, six district khokims are now women, as are 24 senators. There are female ministers and university rectors, and women as heads of investigative law enforcement and police units. The deputy general prosecutor is a woman. The fact that the chair of the senate herself is a woman is also highly significant.
There is a lot of effort on the part of the national leadership to advance women’s issues and advance the role of women. As an OSCE official if I can support that with my own statements and my own actions, and interact with men and get them at the table, then I am happy to do it. We try to advance a gender perspective in everything we do. I want to mention that it is Lola Maksudova and the staff of the Project Co-ordinator who really make things happen. Many of them have been part of the OSCE for 15 years or more, and it is because of them that the OSCE has been able to do so much.
