Gender balance in Azerbaijan is not provided

Azerbaijan has serious problems with women's rights, said in an interview with Turan Shahla Ismail, the head of the Society "Women for Rational Development". According to her, in 2015 there were two significant events: in Geneva at a meeting of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) was discussed the report on Azerbaijan, resulting in the adopting  a package of recommendations on 11 pages, which provide greater opportunities for women in politics, education, socio-economic sphere. These measures must comply with the Azerbaijani government in the coming four years. The second significant event was the restriction of activities of civil society involved in the protection of women's rights.

The year 2015 is remembered by economic problems, the devaluation of the manat, which negatively affected the development of entrepreneurship. "We see it  on our example. Women do not want to do business because of problems with the payment of loans to banks," she  said.The situation with the representation of women in public and government agencies is also poor. Among the heads of 39 ministries and state committees  there is only one woman - the State Committee for Family, Women and Children. In Parliament, there are 21 women among the 124 deputies.

A serious problem Ismail called the practice of selective abortion to prevent the birth of girls. If this practice persists, the imbalance in the birth rate would have serious demographic consequences in the future. "We need systemic reforms, adoption of the law on family planning, the draft of which  has been in parliament  for five years," she said.—03B06-