UN Azerbaijan press release,
16 January 2008,

Baku, 16 January 2008 - The Heydar Aliyev Foundation, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the State Committee for Family, Women and Children's Affairs signed today a joint project "21st century without violence against ?omen" aimed at creating an enabling environment for reducing violence against women in Azerbaijan.

Gender situation assessments by different international organizations including the UNDP National Human Development Report 2007 on Gender Attitudes demonstrate that in Azerbaijan, like in many other countries all over the world, violence in many cases is accepted as an appropriate way to resolve differences within the family to preserve respect for the traditional authority. These assessments also reveal that that the concept of domestic violence is not well understood in the Azerbaijani society and most cases of violence are not reported due to certain social and psychological reasons.

The project embraces three important elements: the development of protection services for victims of violence and educational programmes on non-violence behavior for perpetrators of violence, national advocacy campaigns to change attitudes in the society towards domestic violence and the capacity building of the Government to provide preventive, protective and rehabilitative services for victims. To this end, pilot centres for consultancy services to women-victims of violence and their children are expected to open in Baku (Shuvelan), Ganja, lenkoran and Nakhchivan. These centres will provide free services covering legal and psychological assistance, shelters, hotline, job training, etc.

The project is in line with the commitment of the heads of State and Government under the United Nations Millennium Declaration to ensure the achievement of Millennium Development Goal 3 on gender equality. Launched in the year commemorating 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it will create an environment for better protection of women's human rights in Azerbaijan.

Financed by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and the UNFPA, the 20-month project will be implemented by the State Committee for Family, Women and Children's Affairs.

The project document was signed by Ms. Mehriban Aliyeva, President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, Ms. Hijran Huseynova, the Chairwoman of the State Committee for Family, Women and Children's Affairs and Mr. Bruno Pouezat, UN Resident Coordinator and UNFPA Representative in the Republic of Azerbaijan.