Azernews.Az

By Ofeliya Afandiyeva

Azerbaijani schoolchildren are participating in a national essay contest on women's rights in a project initiated by the country's “Women-Leaders" public union.

The contest started on December 7 to mark the adoption Universal Declaration of Human Rights and is being held between the 10th and 11th grades of secondary schools across the country, head of "Women-Leaders" Malahat Ibrahimgizi said during the event on “Women's rights in the context of national values and national priorities” organized by the union.

The results of the contest will be announced in March.

Addressing the event, Ibrahimgizi said that 2019-2020 marks the anniversary of the adoption by the international community of UN documents on global women's movements, especially women's rights, maternal health, and the elimination of discrimination and violence against women.

Ibrahimgizi also mentioned that the strategy adopted in Beijing 25 years ago have particular importance for elimination of poverty and for solution of social problems of refugees and IDPs’ expelled from the Armenian-occupied territories. Over the past period, serious work was conducted in Azerbaijan to address these two issue, she said.

“2019-2020 is a milestone in the women's movement and the adoption of women's rights documents. We held a movie festival 11 years ago with the Heydar Aliyev Foundation on family values and it was very successful. We thought it would be advisable to organize a student essay contest at school on women's rights in order to research this topic,” Chairperson of the State Committee for Family, Women and Children Affairs, Hijran Huseynova, said in address to the event.

Deputy Education Minister Mahabbat Valiyeva said that Azerbaijan has been historically progressive in terms of women’s rights.

“For the first time in the Islamic World, a secular girl school was opened under initiative of Haji Zeynalabdin Taghiyev in Azerbaijan. Today, Azerbaijani women are successfully represented in all areas. The education of girls is a guarantee of our future. Statistics from recent years show that the number of girls is growing not only in the humanitarian and technical fields. They are studying abroad. They represent our country in the international arena. They are active in protecting the national spiritual values of our people”, Valiyeva said.

UN Resident Coordinator Ghulam M. Isaczai stressed the importance of the project and added that Azerbaijan has undergone significant reforms in this area in recent years.

It should be noted that "Women-Leaders" Public Union, founded in 2000 advocates for activity participation and better position of women in the society through proving psychosocial, educational and counseling support to women.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is a historic document that was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly at its third session on 10 December 1948 in France.

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