The Board of the project on “Raising awareness of the Istanbul Convention and other gender equality standards in Azerbaijan” met online on 20 September. During the meeting, the project management informed Board members and observers about the progress of the project, the results achieved to date from project activities and presented an estimate calendar of remaining activities.

The Board notably took note, that since its last meeting in February 2021,  numerous Council of Europe core materials have been translated and imparted to the benefit of state authorities, civil society and legal professionals, a total of 166 participants attended project activities related to combating violence against women and domestic violence and the Istanbul Convention, and further 500 actively engaged through social media actions. After the presentation, partners presented ideas on how to better contribute towards achieving project's objectives and discussed the way forward.

The Project Board includes the State Committee for Family, Women and Children Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, the Academy of Justice, the office of the Ombudsperson and the Faculty of Law at the Baku State University, as well as the European Union Delegation in Azerbaijan. Civil society representatives participated as observers to the Board. The Board follows the implementation of project activities and guides the project team on how to maximise efforts and achieve impact on the ground in the field of violence against women and domestic violence.

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.