[{"bbox": [96, 152, 1135, 420], "category": "Text", "text": "Gender equality and women's empowerment are among the topics that have gradually shifted towards the centre of the government's agenda, with an increasingly open public debate on women's rights and the gender-based and domestic violence. For the past seven years, the country has seen tremendous advancements in terms of policy and public debate about the issues of gender equality, violence against women and particularly the persistence of domestic violence. Since 2019, the government enacted the landmark law \"On Protection of Women from Harassment and Violence\", established hotlines and network of 29 Rehabilitation centres for longer-term support to women affected by domestic violence. In 2023, Uzbekistan also approved law ZRU#829 which effectively criminalizes several types of domestic and gender-based violence. In the same year, an inter-sectoral working group under the auspices of the Ministry of Justice developed a law on the protection of children from all forms of violence, which is expected to be approved by the Senate in the coming months."}, {"bbox": [96, 444, 1135, 628], "category": "Text", "text": "Uzbekistan has also mandated equal pay for work of equal value, and removed restrictions to women's employment in industrial jobs and jobs considered dangerous. Thanks to these and other reforms, including a new Labour Code integrating new provisions in line with international standards and best practices adopted in October 2022 and effective as of April 2023, the World Bank recognised the country as one of the top improvers in its “Women, Business and Law” report published in March 2024. The reforms have positively impacted two key indicators of the report, Pay and Marriage, leading to an 11.9-point increase in Uzbekistan's position, which now stands at a score of 82.5 in the 2024 WBL index."}, {"bbox": [96, 656, 1135, 871], "category": "Text", "text": "Over the past years, Uzbekistan has undergone significant demographic changes, and particularly a sharp rise in fertility rate (from 2.4 in 2017 to 3.3 in 2021), a decrease in contraceptive use (from 65% in 2006 to 59% in 2021, and from 22% to 1.9% for girls between 15 and 19 years old) coupled with doubling rates of teenage pregnancies and higher rates of early marriages and unmet needs for birth spacing. In 2022, 3.4% of women aged 20-24 were married before they reached the age of 18. The Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2021-2022 shows that the highest unmet need for family planning among women lies in the 20-29 age range. Moreover, only 14.8% of married women have comprehensive knowledge about HIV/STIs, which is also a proxy indicator of lack of adequate knowledge about sexual and reproductive health, STI/HIV prevention and family planning."}, {"bbox": [96, 894, 1135, 950], "category": "Text", "text": "COVID-19 pandemic further disrupted the availability and quality of contraceptives and family planning counseling services resulted in unstable financing of contraceptives' procurement."}, {"bbox": [96, 974, 1135, 1241], "category": "Text", "text": "The demographic trends in Uzbekistan where women have more children reinforces their traditional role of childrearing and caregiving, reducing their participation in the labour force. The World Bank Uzbekistan Country Gender Assessment provides a clear snapshot of the situation, highlighting that young women in fact have higher unemployment rates (15.5% versus 10% for males) and that the share of young women not in employment, education or training (NEET) has reached 42% while the share of male NEET is only 8%. As of 2024, female labour force participation in Uzbekistan lags behind men by 28 percentage points. Studies show that female labour force participation decreases with each additional child by about 10-15% age points among women aged 25-39 in Uzbekistan. At the same time, if women participated in the economy equally as men, the national income in Uzbekistan would rise by 29%, and matching women's pay with men's would lift over 700,000 people out of poverty."}, {"bbox": [96, 1265, 1135, 1529], "category": "Text", "text": "The acceleration in the birth rates observed in Uzbekistan is linked to the lack of awareness on the benefits of family planning. At the same time, Uzbekistan witnesses the resurgence of traditional and religious values in the society which place a higher emphasis on family and child-bearing. These values bring forward a patriarchic idea of the family and of the society, with rigid gender roles assigned to women and men, girls and boys. While the man is supposed to be the breadwinner, the woman should spend most of her time taking care of household duties, cooking, cleaning, caring for kids. In this outlook, women are generally subject to a male authority, such as that of a father, a brother, a husband. This view of the household structure effectively limits women's freedom of choice and access to opportunities; perpetuate discrimination and intolerance, especially discrimination against women, and are one of the main drivers of inequality – and, as a result, of gender-based violence and intimate partner violence – in Uzbekistan."}, {"bbox": [1034, 1679, 1144, 1706], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 5 of 23"}]