On the eve of March 8, International Women's Day, on March 3, 2022, a roundtable on “Women in advocacy: yesterday, today and tomorrow” was organized by the Azerbaijani Bar Association with the participation of the State Committee for Family, Women and Children Affairs at the Excelsior Hotel.

The event was attended by the chairman of the Bar Anar Baghirov, chairperson of the Committee Bahar Muradova, the leadership of the board, and more than 50 women lawyers.

The main purpose of the round table was to discuss the role of women lawyers in society, access of vulnerable groups to legal assistance, the role of women lawyers in the protection of victims of domestic violence, improving the knowledge and skills of women lawyers in the protection of human rights and freedoms in the country, increasing the interest of women lawyers in advocacy, discussing the possibilities of cooperation between the Bar and the Committee in the above-mentioned areas.

In his opening speech, Chairman of the Bar A.Baghirov emphasized the importance of the event for the advocacy in Azerbaijan and spoke about the importance of ensuring gender balance in advocacy, the projects implemented in this area, the need to increase the knowledge and skills of women lawyers in various fields, special sensitivity in approach to the investigation of the requests received from the Committee, as well as the increase in interest in advocacy among women and the increase in the number of women lawyers by 3 times over the past 4 years.

Further, A.Baghirov added that in the framework of the implementation of the Memorandum on legal assistance to victims of domestic violence signed between the Committee, the Bar, and the United Nations Office in Azerbaijan on December 10, 2019, the Bar ensured the provision of gratuitous legal assistance to victims of domestic violence during this period.

Furthermore, chairperson of the Committee Bahar Muradova expressed her gratitude to the leadership of the Bar for the organization of the event, spoke about the importance of the activities of women lawyers related to the requests received from the Committee, successful state policy in this area, special attention of the President and First Vice-President to the mentioned areas, further, she noted the continuation of joint activities with the Bar in providing legal assistance to victims of domestic violence and human trafficking.

In addition, B.Muradova emphasized the Orders “On approval of the Strategy of the Republic of Azerbaijan on Children for 2020-2030”, “On awarding Azerbaijani women”, as well as “On approval of the National Action Plan on combating domestic violence in the Republic of Azerbaijan for 2020-2023” and a number of other documents contributing to the effective organization of activities in this field.

Further, women lawyers made speeches on increasing the interest of women in law and advocacy, difficulties faced by women lawyers in their activities and possible solutions, participation of women lawyers in legal assistance at the state expense and increasing their knowledge and skills, the role of women lawyers in the protection of victims of domestic violence, access to legal assistance of vulnerable groups and on the use of ICT by women lawyers in modern times, their joint activities and organization.

After the speeches, question and answer sessions, and discussions were held, numerous proposals, notes, existing shortcomings in this field, and various opinions were expressed, these issues were noted, generalized by the Bar, and will be taken into account accordingly for professional and efficient activities in this field in the future.

During these discussions, the head of the Committee's Legal Support Department, Taliya Ibrahimova, noted that there is a need to provide legal assistance to victims of domestic violence at the state expense. “The National Action Plan on combating domestic violence in the Republic of Azerbaijan” has been adopted. The development of a mechanism to provide free legal assistance to victims of domestic violence was also envisaged in this plan. We have developed a project in this regard. This project has been agreed upon with the relevant bodies and submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers for approval. As you know, the legislation states the provision of state-funded legal assistance to low-income persons in civil cases only in the courts of higher instance. However, victims of domestic violence are in great need of legal assistance in every court instance, in appeals to state bodies, in obtaining short or long-term protection orders. In this regard, it is important to have such a normative-legal act. In the future, it is planned to develop a draft law on free legal aid. I think that if such a law is adopted, the provision of legal assistance at the state expense to victims of various negative cases from vulnerable groups will be regulated by a special law and there will be no gaps here. As it is known, a single register of lawyers who wish to provide free legal assistance has also been established in our country. Lawyers that are members of this register voluntarily provide legal assistance to low-income people. This is a very good case. As the Committee, we are always ready to apply to lawyers in this register and cooperate with them. We will direct the victims of domestic violence to these lawyers.

At the same time, deputy chairperson of the Lawyers’ Disciplinary Commission Ilhama Hasanova stated at the event that “there is no reason impeding the activities of women lawyers in our country today. There is no male-female division in professional activity. Lawyers have no gender. But I can say that women lawyers are more sensitive to the cases in the proceedings. As the deputy chairperson of the Commission, I should note that there are fewer disciplinary cases against women lawyers today. Even when there is a case related to them, we see that there are not so serious disciplinary offenses. There is unity among women lawyers. Even if informally, we are an organization. We have very close relations of friendship and cooperation. We always support each other. We are also supported by the leadership of the Bar. This greatly contributes to our confidence in ourselves. Today, as a woman, I am the head of a large Law Office. If I have found this courage in myself, it is the result of the trust shown to us. Mr. Anar Baghirov is attentive to all our initiatives and always supports their implementation”.

The participants have been presented with a book “One life has passed just like this” published in Azerbaijan and dedicated to the memoirs of Surayya Agaoglu, the first female lawyer of the Turkic world born in Shusha.