Permanent Delegation of Kazakhstan to International Organizations in Paris participated in the first edition of the OECD Forum on Gender Equality, DKNews.kz reports.
Forum discussed the issues of promoting gender equality in OECD member states and partner countries, especially in the context of green, energy, and digital transitions, economic and social factors of inequality, innovative strategies and policies for protection and empowerment of women.
Among the key speakers of the Forum were OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann, First Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations Amina Mohamed, former President of Chile Michelle Bachelet, ministers, government advisers, heads of large international companies and non-governmental organizations on gender equality from more than 30 countries.
In his welcoming speech, Mathias Cormann noted that gender violence was a key emerging risks to gender equality, as well as discriminatory legal frameworks and social norms. He encouraged utilizing the relevant OECD policy recommendations in this area, which can contribute significantly to shaping strong, sustainable, inclusive societies that ensure gender equality.
Speaking at a special session on restrictive social norms, Ambassador Askar Abdrakhmanov stressed that the state and civil society in Kazakhstan cooperate in improving the legislative framework and social conditions to ensure gender equality in all areas of labor, economic and family relations. Recent amendments to national legislation criminalizing domestic violence and other measures aimed at ensuring equal rights and opportunities for women and men were particularly highlighted.
Wrapping up the Forum, OECD Deputy Secretary-General Ulrik Knudsen, proposed to focus efforts on the following areas of work: strengthen the legal framework for eliminating discrimination and promoting gender equality; ensuring equality in labor, education, and training; integrating gender aspects into climate, energy, and digital technology policies; increasing investments in gender aggregated data gender-responsive government tools; confrontation of discriminatory social norms against women and men.
Following its first Gender Equality Forum, the OECD published a Key Issues Paper on this topic with relevant policy recommendations.
