UNIFEM supports the first national conference of Coalition 1325

The first national conference of Coalition 1325 supported by the Baku Office of the regional project "Women for Conflict Prevention and Peace Building in the Southern Caucasus" implemented by United Nations Development Fund For Women (UNIFEM) was held on October 25, 2003 at the International Press Center in Baku. The topic of the conference is "Coalition 1325 and Azerbaijani Women in Peacebuilding process".

Coalition 1325 is a women group in support of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security, established on September 6, 2002 embracing twenty-three women from different strata of the society - Parliament, state agencies, NGO community, political parties and mass media.

The main purpose of the conference was to raise the awareness of the Azerbaijani society on the content of UNSC Resolution 1325, on the importance of women's equal participation and full involvement in all efforts for the maintenance and promotion of peace and security, strengthen collaboration of members of Coalition 1325 with women from different regions of Azerbaijan and formalize network at the national level.

The introductory speech of Ms. Hijran Huseynova, a member of Coalition 1325, the deputy dean of the International Law and International Relations department of the Baku State University, opened the event and informed guests about the main priority areas of Coalition 1325.

Then the Deputy Resident Representative of the UNDP Mr. David Eizenberg, expressing his pleasure for the participation in the event, spoke about the vitality of the Coalition 1325 and the special role of women in peacebuilding. He noted that United Nations persistently supports these types of activities.

The national coordinator of the UNIFEM project in Azerbaijan Ms.Gulshan Pashayeva briefed people about the history of the creation of the coalition, its activities in current year. She highly appreciated the training programs conducted by the members of Coalition 1325 in different regions of Azerbaijan, wishing success to all members of Coalition 1325 who participated at the current conference from those regions and overall activities of the Coalition-1325.

The opening ceremony ended with the speech of Zahra Guliyeva, the Head of the State Committee on Women's issues.

The topics on active participation of women in decision-making, the importance of people's diplomacy in peacebuilding, the raise of the role of IDP women in peacebuilding, the promotion of the culture of peace concepts were discussed during the conference. Later the participants were divided into four groups for the discussions around the above-mentioned topics.

During the conference the issues related to the determination of quotas, ensuring the raise of women's role on the state administration levels, organization of the educational classes, promotion the culture of peace, creation of the schools of the people's diplomacy, were conferred.

At the end the participants prepared the final documents of the conference such as "Future strategies of the Coalition 1325" and Appeal to the Milli Mejlis of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Cabinet of the Ministries and International organizations.

APPEAL

For more information contact:
Ms Gulshan Pashayeva
National Project Coordinator
98 98 88 (ext.119)