On 17 March 2022, the Council of Europe project “Raising awareness of the Istanbul Convention and other gender equality standards in Azerbaijan” launched the Human rights Education for Legal Professionals (HELP) course on violence against women and domestic violence for Azerbaijani state authorities. Participants included representatives of the State Committee on Family, Women and Children Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, the Ombuds office, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Population.

The training course aims to increase participants’ knowledge on violence against women and domestic violence, as well as on the main international legal standards in the field, including the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (known as the Istanbul Convention). It also seeks to building skills of professionals involved in preventing and combating violence against women in dealing with such cases, and to challenge preconceived ideas and attitudes when dealing with them. Following a general presentation of the HELP Programme and training methodology, the participants were introduced to the course on violence against women and its modules, and the national tutor explained the platform and the timeframe of the course.

Through a tour de table, participants expressed their expectations from the course. Here are some of them:

“This will be a very important course, it provides us with an opportunity to gain more knowledge on the topic and how to apply it in practice”, representative of the State Committee on Family, Women and Children Affairs

“I have already benefited from HELP courses, such as the one on anti-discrimination. The experience was really valuable, so I think this course on violence against women should enrich us with practical cases and will help us increase our awareness on this topic”, representative of the Ombuds office

“This opportunity is highly valuable for us. It is important to better understand how we can introduce violence against women and domestic violence in the curricula and how to teach schoolchildren about this topic”, representative of the Ministry of Education

The course will last for three months, after which state authorities who successfully complete it will be certified by the Council of Europe HELP Programme. 

This course was translated, adapted and launched under the joint project ‘Raising awareness of the Istanbul Convention and other gender equality standards in Azerbaijan’ currently implemented within the second phase of the Partnership for Good Governance (PGGII), a European Union and Council of Europe joint programme in the Eastern Partnership countries.

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

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