Tajikistan

Introduction

The most recent NAP was adopted in 2019, running until 2022. However, the document doesn’t seem to be public, so the following information pertains to next most recent NAP, running from 2014 to 2018

Objectives

Although the Tajikistan National Action Plan encompasses overall women’s rights and goes beyond a focus on WPS, the section dedicated to affirming the government’s support for UNSCR 1325 lists a number of strategic objectives targeted at women in the security and peace-building space: 

1. Increase women’s participation in conflict resolution at the decision-making level and protect women in areas of armed conflict or under foreign occupation

2. Reduce “excessive” military spending and to monitor or limit the availability of weapons

3. Advocate for non-violent forms of conflict resolution and to reduce human rights violations in conflict

4. Promote the contribution of women to the promotion of a culture of peace

5. Protect, assist, and train refugee and internally displaced women

6. To assist women in colonies and non-self-governing territories.

Commentary

Tajikistan’s NAP is interesting because of its lack of focus on the WPS agenda. While one section of the document makes reference to UNSCR 1325 and women in conflict, overall the document focuses on all aspects of women’s rights and is primarily a document about economic development, health, and education. While these issues are interrelated, to conflate them with WPS is to minimize the relative importance of each one and runs the risk of treating it as a generalizable ‘women’s issue’, rather than taking WPS as a security issue for implementation by security services. In reality, WPS requires both. Further, the Tajikistan NAP includes unique language about colonies and occupied territories, as well as calling for a reduction in ‘excessive’ military spending. These points all lack specificity and it is difficult to see a clear path towards implementation. Finally, the language about women and conflict resolution, while important, leaves open the possibility that this NAP does not look to include women in security forces, a problematic oversight that perpetuates notions of women as naturally peaceful.

Civil Society

References to civil society is extremely limited in this NAP, especially in the section related to realization of the WPS agenda. LSE’s WPS Centre reports that there was almost no consultation with civil society groups during the drafting process, an exclusion that becomes clear throughout the document as civil society is hardly mentioned. The other sections of the document, particularly the health and education sections, are more detailed about civil society inclusion than the WPS section.

Peacekeeping statistics

Tajikistan currently contributes four peacekeepers, two of which are women.

Sources

https://www.wpsnaps.org/nap/tajik-national-action-plan/

https://www.wpsnaps.org/app/uploads/2019/09/Tajikistan-review-of-the-BPfA-2014.pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_UN_peacekeepers_contributed