Central Asian Women Professionals Combine their Skills during Leadership Workshop in Baku, Azerbaijan

April 2007: WLP Kazakhstan/Shymkent Women’s Resource Center convened a leadership workshop in Baku, Azerbaijan for seventeen women professionals, active in the socio-political life of Azerbaijan, as NGO leaders, union members, or members of political parties.

During the workshop, participants initiated a campaign to end early marriage and decided to focus their efforts on providing legal assistance to women affected. They also pledged to involve the media, educate the public, and work with parents to inform them about the issue. “I realized that it is necessary to change the laws that sanction and ignore the crimes against women,” explains one participant, Olga,* of the legal emphasis of the campaign.

Over the course of the workshop, participants explored the launch of other advocacy projects, including a plan to form a national organization against early marriages and a center for Internally Displaced People (IDPs), who continue to exist in poor living conditions as a result of territorial conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan in 1988. They identified the problems, decided upon the structure and actions to be taken, procedures for decision-making, and the division of responsibilities.