The 5th Ministerial Conference on the Role of Women in the Development of the OIC Member States has started in Baku.

It was attended by more than 220 delegates from nearly 60 countries.

The conference kicked off with the recitation of verses from the Holy Quran.

Head of the Humanitarian Policy Department at the Azerbaijani President`s Administration Fatma Abdullazade read out President Ilham Aliyev`s message of greetings to the participants of the conference.

Chair of the 4th Conference, Indonesian Ambassador to Azerbaijan Raden Prayono Atiyanto hailed the organization of the conference. Underlining the importance of developing women`s role in the society, the Ambassador said the previous conference was held in Jakarta, where very important decisions were adopted. The Ambassador expressed confidence the Baku conference would contribute to the protection of women`s rights and expansion of their role in society. Prayono Atiyanto expressed regret over the existence of different obstacles to strengthening women`s role in society, especially increasing their activity in political life. The Ambassador said: “A lot of work must be done towards avoiding the obstacles. Women`s economic freedom, gender issue are still a problem in some countries. The aim of the conference is to combine our efforts towards avoiding the problems facing women, and we believe we can.”

Chairperson of State Committee for Family, Women and Children Affairs Hijran Huseynova highlighted the agenda of the conference. Huseynova said the conference is aimed at reviewing the progress made in promoting the status of women and strengthening their role in the OIC Member States. According to Huseynova, the gender problem could be settled only by well-educated, experienced women. She provided an insight into the Azerbaijani government`s policy towards strengthening a family institute, protecting the rights of women and children, and ensuring gender equality. Touching upon Armenia`s military aggression against Azerbaijan, the Committee chair noted more than a million of Azerbaijanis, including 400,000 women and 300,000 children are living as refugees and IDPs. She also underlined women`s role on parliamentary and municipal levels.

Assistant Secretary General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Muhammad Naeem Khan expressed gratitude to Azerbaijan`s first lady, president of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Mehriban Aliyeva for the organization of the conference. “Such conferences open up wide opportunities for women in the process of development.”

Naeem Khan said: “We have to combine our efforts to eliminate problems that women face.”

Director of UNFPA`s Regional Office for Eastern Europe and Central Asia Heimo Laakkonen hailed Azerbaijani first lady Mehriban Aliyeva for supporting the conference. Laakkonen stressed women must play a role in adoption of international norms. Speaking on the UNFPA-OIC cooperation, Laakkonen said great success has been achieved in reducing the number of maternal deaths during child-bearing, protecting honour and dignity of women and enlightening them.

The 5th conference will end with the adoption of Baku Declaration.