On 14-15 January 2021, a series of online meetings were held with Azerbaijani stakeholders to support the work of Council of Europe experts in preparing a gap analysis of the Azerbaijani legislation and policies in the field of violence against women and domestic violence in line with the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence. During these meetings stakeholders provided information on civil and criminal procedures in the country and discussed current practices for preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence.

Meetings were held with the State Committee for Family, Women and Children Affairs, the Ministry of Justice and the Academy of Justice, the office of the Ombudsperson, judges from the Supreme Court, the Prosecutor’s office, other international organisations, including the UNFPA, as well as civil society and independent human rights lawyers working the field of women’s rights and violence against women and domestic violence.

These meetings took place 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 join the Istanbul Convention.

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

For further information on PGGII, please see PGGII’s website.