Today, the World Bank unveiled its annual report, “Women, Business and the Law 2024” (WBL 2024), assessing global progress toward legal gender equality. The report evaluates 190 countries, including Uzbekistan, across ten indicators: Safety, Mobility, Workplace, Pay, Marriage, Parenthood, Childcare, Entrepreneurship, Assets, and Pension.
According to the latest findings, between October 1, 2022, and October 1, 2023, only 18 countries – less than 10 percent of those evaluated – implemented legal reforms to enhance gender equality across these indicators. Collectively, these nations enacted 47 reforms. Within the Europe and Central Asia region, five economies, including Uzbekistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cyprus, and Moldova, introduced nine reforms.
Uzbekistan stands out alongside Jordan, Malaysia, Sierra Leone, and Togo as one of the five countries making significant strides, implementing four key reforms to advance gender equality since October 2022.
These reforms notably impacted two crucial indicators, Pay and Marriage, leading to Uzbekistan’s ascent by 11.9 points in the 2024 WBL index, reaching a score of 82.5. This achievement places Uzbekistan on par with Singapore, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates, marking the most substantial progress in Central Asia.
Specifically, Uzbekistan mandated equal pay for work of equal value and eliminated restrictions on women’s employment in industrial and hazardous jobs. These provisions were integrated into a new Labor Code adopted in October 2022, aligning with international labor standards and conventions.
Furthermore, Uzbekistan enacted legislation safeguarding women from domestic violence. Amendments to the Criminal Code and the Code of Administrative Liability introduced in April 2023 address domestic violence comprehensively, including physical, psychological, and financial abuse within family relationships, with established criminal penalties for offenders.
Tatiana Proskuryakova, the World Bank’s Regional Director for Central Asia, commended Uzbekistan’s progress in promoting gender equality as acknowledged in the latest WBL report. She emphasized the significant enhancement of women’s civil, labor, and economic rights resulting from recent legal reforms. Proskuryakova highlighted the World Bank’s support for these reforms through analytical and financial assistance, including development policy operations conducted in 2021 and 2023 to bolster transformative social and economic reforms across various sectors in Uzbekistan.
