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European Union and Council of Europe carry out joint project on gender equality in Azerbaijan

10 July 2020 16:19 (UTC +04:00)

The project “Raising awareness of the Istanbul Convention and other gender equality standards in Azerbaijan” is a joint action under the European Union and Council of Europe’s programme Partnership for Good Governance II (PGG II), APA reports citing website of Council of Europe.

This project aims to raise awareness on the Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention) and other gender equality standards in Azerbaijan, in order to strengthen domestic legislation and policies to align them with European standards. The Istanbul Convention is widely recognised as one of the main legal standards and the most comprehensive international treaty to tackle violence against women and domestic violence (VAW/DV), which is a serious violation of the human rights of women. It is implemented by the Council of Europe.

To achieve that, the project will co-operate with the Azerbaijani authorities through three main fields of action: legislative and policy frameworks, awareness-raising activities and capacity-building of government officials.

Main activities of the project are to raise awareness on the content of the Istanbul Convention, provide a better understanding of its aim and provisions, and increase the capacity of national actors to align legislation and policies with European gender equality standards and deal with VAW/DV, the project foresees the following activities:

a gap analysis with recommendations of the current legislative and policy framework of Azerbaijan in line with Council of Europe gender equality standards, including the Istanbul Convention;
a roundtable with relevant public officials to present the report and its recommendations, and discuss the follow-up;
development of a national campaign under the umbrella of the 16 Days of Activism to stop VAW/DV, in line with the Istanbul Convention and other CoE standards;
training sessions of relevant state authorities on VAW/DV, including through the CoE HELP Programme (Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals);
a study visit for selected state authorities and other stakeholders to promote the transfer of knowledge and experience on policies to combat VAW/DV and multi-agency co-operation;
production of materials to raise awareness on VAW/DV and gender equality standards.

In addition, this project will aim to provide support to the Azerbaijani authorities in their path towards signature and ratification of the Istanbul Convention.