Chair of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova who is in the capital city of Austria on a working visit now has met with Eliane Tillieux, Chair of the Chamber of Representatives, and Stephanie d’Hose, Chair of the Senate of the Federal Parliament of the Kingdom of Belgium.

Speaker Sahiba Gafarova welcomed the colleagues before saying that Azerbaijan attached a special significance to promoting its relations with the Kingdom of Belgium.

As the meeting unfolded, the chair of the Milli Majlis shared with Mrs Tillieux and Mrs d’Hose the information about the protection of women’s rights and the work done to this end in Azerbaijan. It was mentioned that Azerbaijan granted women the rights to elect and be elected back in 1918, which was earlier than in a number of European countries and for the first time ever in the Muslim World. The gaining of independence by our country in 1991 was followed by the emergence of the State Committee for Women’s Problems, the decrees ‘On Empowering Women in Azerbaijan’ and ‘On Implementing the State Policy on Women in the Azerbaijan Republic’ and, last but not least, the laws on maintaining gender equality and curbing violence against women.

Underlining then the need in broader inter-parliamentary ties between the two states, Sahiba Gafarova pointed at the broad interaction growth prospects for the two houses of the Belgian Parliament and the Milli Majlis, both bilaterally and, multilaterally, in the format of various international institutions. Besides, there are reciprocal friendship groups active in the parliaments of both countries, it was said.

In their turn, Chair of the Chamber of Representatives Elian Tillieux and Chair of the Senate of the Federal Parliament of the Kingdom of Belgium Stephanie d’Hose greeted Chair of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova and said that Belgium, too, considered broadening its relations with Azerbaijan an extremely important matter. The Belgian speakers told her of the work done and under way in their country in defence of women’s rights and emphasised the significance of two-way visits for the progress of the bilateral inter-parliamentary connexions and for reinforcement of parliamentary diplomacy alike.

There was also an exchange of opinions at the meeting about the need to make reciprocal visits more intensive and about other matters of concern to both sides.

The Press and Public Relations Department

The Milli Majlis