Workshop on gender equality and women's rights held in Prague

ODIHR organized a workshop for national human rights institutions from 17 OSCE participating States in Prague on 29 March. The event provided the first opportunity for representatives of these institutions to meet and exchange their experiences in promoting gender equality and women’s rights at both the national and international levels. In particular, the workshop focused on institutional practices related to monitoring, protecting, and promoting women’s rights and gender equality, as well as the role played by national human rights institutions in the area of education.

Building on data gathered through a survey, as well as the recommendations made at this workshop, ODIHR will complete a comparative review of the national human rights institutions and their gender-equality practices, to be finalized in the second half of this year.

In line with the priorities set out by the OSCE’s Lithuanian Chairmanship, the workshop was the first of a number of programmatic events initiated by ODIHR in 2011 to highlight the work of national human rights institutions. The next will be the OSCE’s Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting on National Human Rights Institutions to be held in Vienna on 14-15 April.