POLITICS
7TH COE CONFERENCE OF MINISTERS RESPONSIBLE FOR EQUALITY BETWEEN WOMEN AND MEN ENDS IN BAKU
Baku, May 25 (AZERTAC). The 7th Council of Europe Conference of Ministers responsible for Equality between Women and Men, under the theme “Gender equality: bridging the gap between de jure and de facto gender equality” wrapped up here on Tuesday.
A keynote speech was delivered by Chairwoman of the human rights committee at the Azerbaijani Parliament, Rabiyyat Aslanova, who highlighted what the government had been doing to strengthen the protection of human rights.
She expressed confidence that the Baku conference would help achieve gender equality, which is one of Millennium Development Goals.
She pointed out Azerbaijan signed 142 documents on gender equality and women`s rights and ratified international documents on human and women`s rights including convention on elimination of all forms of discrimination against women. The Azerbaijan parliament also passed a bill on prevention of domestic violence in 2006. Aslanova highlighted Azerbaijan`s First Lady, President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, ISESCO and UNESCO goodwill ambassador, Mehriban Aliyeva`s efforts to ensure gender equality and protect women`s rights.
Addressing the conference, Spain`s Secretary-General of Equality Policies Isabel Martinez expressed gratitude to Azerbaijan government for excellent organization of the event.
She said the conference opens up new opportunities for active participation of women in economy.
The ministers adopted a resolution on “Bridging the gap between de jure and de facto equality to achieve real gender equality” and an Action Plan “taking up the challenge of the achievement of de jure and de facto gender equality” that maps out the future work of the Council of Europe in this field. The participants decided to hold the next conference in Netherlands.
Speaking to the event, Chairperson of the State Committee for Family, Women and Children affairs Hijran Huseynova said the problem of gender inequality cannot be solved without a dialogue.
“I believe decisions adopted and documents will be a sort of “roadmap” for pursuing gender policy until the next conference,” Huseynova said.
Philippe Boillat, Director General of Human Rights and Legal Affairs of the Council of Europe underlined the conference was very effective. According to him, gender equality must be a priority for every government.
Completing the conference Deputy Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Elchin Efendiyev said President Ilham Aliyev`s message to conference participants, First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva`s speech on gender equality, participation of foreign guests and representatives of international organizations proves how much importance the event is.
He noted the documents adopted and issues discussed provide opportunities for expanding gender equality cooperation with the CoE, and experience exchange.
According to Efendiyev, gender equality is very important in Azerbaijan, the country, which granted women`s suffrage 100 years ago for the first time in the East.
He expressed hope that policy to prevent violence against women and protect their rights will be intensified in the CoE member states.
At the end of the conference, the government of Azerbaijan and participants of the conference expressed gratitude to President Ilham Aliyev over successful work of the forum.
######