The State Committee for Women's Issues, through the support of UNIFEM, hosts roundtable to discuss Beijing +10 On June 27th, 2005, the State Committee for Women's Issues of the Republic of Azerbaijan held a roundtable entitled "Ten years after Beijing: Achievements, Challenges and Perspectives" at the Hyatt Hotel. Through the support of the UNIFEM Regional Project, "Women for Conflict Prevention and Peace Building in the Southern Caucasus", the roundtable brought together local women's organizations, international partners and representatives of state bodies to discuss the importance of the Beijing Platform for Action to advancing gender equality in Azerbaijan. Ms. Zahra Guliyeva, Chairperson of the State Committee for Women's Issues of the Republic of Azerbaijan, in her opening remarks spoke of the Beijing process and Azerbaijan's active participation in it. She stressed the commitment of the Republic of Azerbaijan to contribute to this process. Ms. Guliyeva outlined the areas of work of the Committee for 2005 in supporting the mainstreaming of gender throughout the new State Programme on Poverty Reduction and Sustainable Development (2006-2015), and the national Millennium Development Goals. According to her, these activities would be carried out through a partnership between UNIFEM and the State Committee for Women's Issues. Ms. Christine Arab, Chief Technical Adviser of the UNIFEM project, spoke of the Project's activities and goals in the region in general and in Azerbaijan in particular, including the above partnership with the State Committee for Women's Issues. Ms. Arab stressed the importance of the on-going global processes - Beijing +10, the Millennium Summit, and the 5th Anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 - to advancing gender equality in Azerbaijan. These important global processes support and compliment related national processes, such as the development of a new national plan of action for women, and the creation of a new State Programme for Poverty Reduction and Sustainable Development (2006-2015). Ms. Mominat Omarova, Deputy Chairperson of the State Committee for Women's Issues of the Republic of Azerbaijan, made a presentation of the Report of the Government of Azerbaijan to the Committee on the Status of Women (CSW), which was presented at UN Headquarters in New York earlier this March. The report assesses the national implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, ten years after its adoption. The roundtable participants focused in their further discussions on how to address the challenges which the report highlighted. Further, the participants also discussed the future cooperation in developing the new National Plan of Action for the Advancement of Women for the Republic of Azerbaijan The Beijing Platform for Action is a global strategy for women's empowerment, which aims at removing obstacles to women's active participation in all spheres of public and private life, including in economic, social, cultural and political decision-making. The National Report of the Government of Azerbaijan to the CSW was developed in response to a questionnaire for governments sent by the UN Division for the Advancement of Women. It assesses the achievements and challenges in implementing the Beijing Platform of Action in Azerbaijan. For more information contact: Gulshan Pashayeva, National Coordinator, UNIFEM Tel: +99412 498 98 88 (ext.119) Photo Gallery

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