After regaining independence in 1991 Azerbaijan Republic has ratified almost all major international legal documents on the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms. As a member state of the United Nations Azerbaijan has ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. As a member of the Council of Europe, Azerbaijan has ratified the European Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
By acceding to these conventions the country has demonstrated strong intention to uphold the international legal standards enshrined in these documents and bring the national human rights documents into compliance with these norms. Nevertheless, the protection and promotion of the rights of the women still remains among the issues which require more work to be done for ensuring full adherence to the provisions of the above stated pacts.
The article 25 of the Constitution of Azerbaijan Republic (12 November 1995) emphasises the full equality for men and women. The article 34 underlines the equal status of men and women within marriage. Even though the Constitution and the Criminal Code provide protection for women, there are still huge discrepancies in this respect. This is predominantly due to the traditional attitudes toward the role of women in the society that have negatively contributed to the awareness and attention to the violence against women and their struggle to achieve full equality with men. The Law on Domestic Violence is expected to be a great achievement on the way of combating GBV, however, the document is still pending in Milli Mejlis (parliament). The existing legal documents also need further revisions and updates in this respect. In addition, lack of national policies on combating GBV further complicates the organization of the nationwide response to the phenomenon.
Hence, the CGBV project aims at supporting the Azerbaijani government in developing and implementing national framework for combating GBV in the country.
