In early July, a series of capacity-building sessions took place for Azerbaijani authorities and civil society representatives working in the field of violence against women and domestic violence (VAW/DV) to jointly develop a campaign to raise awareness on these issues.

The sessions included technical presentations on causes of violence, types of victims and perpetrators and the key features of the Council of Europe’s Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (the Istanbul Convention), but also included dynamic working groups sessions to ensure active participation. As a result of the sessions, key messages, audiences and methods of delivery were identified and these will be used for developing a nation-wide campaign that will be put into place in light of the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence in November 2021.

Among the participating authorities there were representatives of the State Committee on Family, Women and Children Affairs, the State Committee on the Work with Religious Organisations, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Population, the Commissioner for Human Rights and relevant civil society organisations, all of which have the competence to deliver this type of campaigns under the Azerbaijani National Action Plan to combat domestic violence for 2020-2023.

This activity was done under the joint action ‘Raising awareness of the Istanbul Convention and other gender equality standards in Azerbaijan’ currently implemented within the Programme for Good Governance II (PGGII), a European Union and Council of Europe joint programme in the Eastern Partnership countries. Among other objectives, the joint action seeks to support the Azerbaijani authorities to sign the Istanbul Convention.

For further information on the project, please visit the project’s website.

Further information on PGGII is available on the PGGII’s website.