A round table on "Women in Advocacy: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow" was held - PHOTO

On the eve of International Women's Day on March 8, the Bar Association of the Republic of Azerbaijan organized a round table on "Women in Advocacy: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow" on March 3, 2022 at the Excelsior Hotel with the participation of the State Committee for Family, Women and Children.

E-huquq.az reports that the event was attended by Chairman of the Bar Association Anar Bagirov, Chairperson of the State Committee for Family, Women and Children Bahar Muradova, the leadership of the Bar Association and more than 50 women lawyers.

The main purpose of the roundtable is to be discussed the role of women lawyers in society, access to legal assistance for vulnerable groups, the role of women lawyers in the protection of victims of domestic violence, improving the knowledge and skills of women lawyers in protecting human rights and freedoms in the country and the opportunities for cooperation between the Board and the Committee in these fields.

In the opening speech, Bahar Muradova, Chairperson of the Committee, thanked the leadership of the Bar Association for organizing the event. The Chairperson stressed the importance of the activities of women lawyers in the work of the Committee's inquiries, the successful state policy in this field, the special attention of the President and the First Vice President to those fields, as well as she talked about the continuation of jointly activities with the Board in providing legal aid to victims of domestic violence and human trafficking. In addition, B.Muradova noted on "Approval of the Strategy of the Republic of Azerbaijan for Children for 2020-2030", "On awarding Azerbaijani women", as well as she highlighted "On the Azerbaijani National Action Plan to combat domestic violence for 2020-2023” orders and a number of other documents that contribute to the effective organization of activities in this field.

Afterwards, Chairman of the Board Anar Bagirov stressed the importance of the event for Azerbaijani advocacy, spoke about the importance of ensuring gender balance in advocacy, projects in this field, and the need to increase the knowledge and skills of women lawyers in various fields. He noted the growing interest in advocacy and the threefold increase in the number of women lawyers in the last four years. In addition, Chairman A. Bagirov added that in the framework of the Memorandum signed on December 10, 2019 between the Committee, the Bar Association and the United Nations Office in Azerbaijan on providing legal assistance to victims of domestic violence, free legal aid was provided by the Bar Association during this period.

At the event, members of the Bar Association made presentations on the challenges faced by women lawyers and their solutions, the use of ICT by women lawyers in modern times, as well as the organization and joint activities of women lawyers, and participated in active discussions.

At the end of the event, the participants were presented with a book "A lifetime has passed" published in Azerbaijan, dedicated to the memory of Surayya Agaoglu, who was the first female lawyer of the Turkic world, born in Shusha.