OSCE Office in Baku supports conference on domestic violence

BAKU, 25 November 2009 - A conference on domestic violence organized by the OSCE Office in Baku and the State Committee on Family, Women and Children's Affairs started today.

Conference participants will analyse and discuss domestic violence topics in Azerbaijan, including a proposed law on the prevention of domestic violence.

"Ten years ago, the UN General Assembly designated 25 November as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. We chose this date for this conference to raise awareness about domestic violence matters in Azerbaijan because although anyone can suffer from domestic violence, the overwhelming majority of its victims are women and children," said Ambassador Bilge Cankorel, the Head of the OSCE Office in Baku.

In recent years, several OSCE participating States, including Bulgaria, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine and Georgia, have adopted domestic violence legislation.

"We hope that Azerbaijan will join these and the nearly 60 countries worldwide that now have national legislation criminalizing domestic violence," Cankorel said.

Speeches and presentations examining the problem will also be given by Members of Parliament, as well as representatives of the government, civil society and international organizations. The OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights will provide an expert opinion on the draft law.

The OSCE Office in Baku is working with the State Committee on Family, Women's and Children's Affairs and the Parliament's Standing Committee on Human Rights to raise awareness of domestic violence in Azerbaijan and to support renewed efforts to draft and adopt domestic violence legislation. The Office also supported and organized four talk shows in the last weeks on the problem of domestic violence on Public Broadcaster ITV, with the participation of the State Committee and the Parliament.