The last plenary sitting of the autumn session of the Milli Majlis was held on 30 December.

Parliament Chair Sahiba Gafarova announced while opening the sitting that there would be 7 items on the agenda with 4 of them being the Bills to be tabled for deliberations in the third reading - including the first and the second one that are interconnected by substance. The first item is the draft amendments to the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Law and the second one is the set of draft amendments to the Tax Code, according to Madame Chair.

The first and the second agenda items were presented by Deputy Chairman of the parliamentary Committee for Law Policy, Industries and Enterprising Ali Masimli who mentioned the exhaustive overview of both items given during their first and second readings. The Committee had not received any remarks or proposals regarding either, Mr Masimli said.

The Bills were put on vote and approved in the third reading one after another.

Another package of draft amendments to the Tax Code of the Azerbaijan Republic was tabled by Chairman of the parliamentary Committee for Economic Policy, Industries and Enterprising Tahir Mirkishili. He specified the plan to add two new articles to the existing article of the Code on tax-exemption. The amendments' texts had not been modified in any manner since the first and the second readings, Mr Mirkishili added.

The Bill was approved in the third reading then.

Next, Mr Mirkishili spoke of the draft amendments proposed in the State Debt Law. As he explained, they contained a mechanism for mutual funds transfers between the Guarantee Fund and the State Budget.

That Bill was voted through the third reading after that.

Further, Madame Chair announced the fifth item on the agenda being a Bill on establishing the embassy of the Azerbaijan Republic in Kabul, the capital city of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Madame Chair remarked that the Bill in question was to be heard and enacted in one reading only in compliance with the Constitutional Law 'On the Regulatory Legal Acts'.

It was Chairman of the parliamentary Committee for International Relations and Inter-parliamentary Contacts Samad Seyidov who introduced the Bill in question to the Parliament. Mr Seyidov quoted the President of Azerbaijan as having said, 'We express our gratitude to the brotherly people of Afghanistan for having always been by our side and having supported us in the period of negotiations and occupation, during the war and after it and when we were celebrating our victory'. Then, Mr Seyidov emphasised the utmost importance and needfulness of our relations with Afghanistan in the present time.

The committee chairman Siyavush Novruzov and the MPs Fazayil Agamali, Gudrat Hasanguliyev, Aydin Mirzazade, Musa Gasimli, Aghil Abbas and Malahat Ibrahimghizi who spoke then expanded on the close friendly ties between Azerbaijan and Afghanistan and on how the two countries always support each other.

The Bill in question was approved following the deliberations.

Then annual report of the executive authority responsible for overseeing the maintenance of gender equality in the country followed. Before presenting it, Chair of the State Committee for Family, Women's and Children's Problems Bahar Muradova cordially congratulated the MPs and the nation alike on the great Victory gained in the Patriotic War under the leadership of President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Mr Ilham Aliyev.

Going further, Ms Muradova described the social and cultural basics of the equality of women and men in Azerbaijan resting on the values, customs and traditions of our people. The attention paid to eliminating all forms of gender-based discrimination and upholding gender equality in state administration has grown since the dedicated Law 'On the Maintenance of the Gender Equality (of Men and Women)' was enacted in the Azerbaijan Republic. The enlightenment and informative activities undertaken to foster the gender equality culture in all the sections of the society have taken a great sweep.

The State Committee has been discharging its competence-based tasks of keeping up employment and, especially, private business enterprising and maintaining the equality of the sexes through a combined effort with the appropriate state authorities. Besides, the State Committee has all through this year been taking into account the opinions and recommendations adopted on the 17 Goals after the hearing of Azerbaijan's fifth periodical report at the meeting of the UN CEDAW Committee in 2015 - the UN Sustainable Development Goals proper as well as the urges and challenges of the other international institutions.

The statistical reference contained in the annual report is based on the data obtained from the State Statistics Committee and from other bodies as well as on the research findings that the State Committee for Family, Women's and Children's Problems had had in collaboration with non-governmental and international organisations.

The reporting year has seen the efforts having been put in streamlining the regulatory and legal framework and maintaining compliance with the modern requirements. A number of mechanisms to ensure de facto the gender equality provided de jure has been engineered for both sexes.

The State Committee for Family, Women's and Children's Problems complete with its subordinated Children and Family Support Centres, the officials responsible for gender matters, the monitoring groups for the prevention of gender violence and violence against children, the Resource Centres for Women and the Milli Majlis Committee for Family, Women's and Children's Affairs should be mentioned so far as the institutional mechanisms underpinning the national gender equality action are concerned, Mrs Muradova said.

 She mentioned the efforts that the Azerbaijani State is making to avert gender discrimination - just like all the democratic societies do - as she was talking about the fulfilment of the state's gender equality provision tasks.

It follows from the study of the research findings generated by the State Committee itself as well as from the public feedback that cancellations of employment contracts with pregnant women or mothers supporting young children, the inclination towards employment candidates of the opposite sex and shrugging off the benefits for working mothers are the widest-spread manifestations of gender discrimination as far as labour rights are concerned in the private sector.

Raising the subject of the lamentable practice of forcing girls into early wedlock,  State Committee Chair mentioned the comprehensive care of the Azerbaijani youth and the evident achievements made in that area thanks to the children and teenager policy that President Ilham Aliyev has been pursuing over the past few years as well as due to a number of decrees and orders signed by him and, last but not least, because the relevant state programmes and action plans had hit their respective targets.

Returning to the annual report, it says that the avoidance of any gender's prevalence in state administration and decision-making is one of the paramount tasks of the State. Certain progress has been made to that end thanks to the endeavours made so far; women are especially notably represented in the national legislative authority body, Mrs Muradova continued. The female MPs had risen in number from 13 in 2005 to 22 in 2020. The chairs of two parliamentary committees are women; there are also four female parliamentary committee deputy chairs. And, of course, a woman was elected as Chair of the Milli Majlis.

Mrs Muradova proceeded to her account of an improved situation with women serving in the executive authority organs: the appointment of Mrs Mehriban Aliyeva as the First Vice President of the country in 2017 gave the Azerbaijani women such a high office in the supreme state administration system for the first time ever. Besides, Azerbaijan has one female minister, three female ambassadors and one female consul.  Besides, there are 76 women who are deputy heads of executive authority bodies. Women in the employ of the judicial and local self-government authorities are growing in numbers, too.

Bahar Muradova cited several statistical figures during her presentation, saying that 2.5 mn or 48.7% of the five-million-strong economically active population are women; 2.6 mn or 51.3% are men. As for the inactive fraction of the population that numbers 2.1 mn people, 1.4 mn (65.8%) of them are women and 733,000 (34.2%) are men. The average monthly salaries paid to women and men across the economic roles equal AZN 335 and AZN 663, respectively. Also, though women constitute a larger portion of the unemployed section of the population, more men are on record in the jobless lists. The age-wise and gender-wise breakdowns of the unemployable contingencies indicate that women make 42.6% of them all and are behind men who form the balance 57.4%.

Admissions to political parties, non-governmental organisations and trade unions should be governed by the same conditions for men and women; both gender groups should be granted equal opportunities. There are 61 political parties active in the country right now; 2 of them are led by women and 59 by men. Women constitute 23% of the total staff of all the elective agencies and administrative bodies and, judging by the information supplied by the Confederation of the Trade Unions of Azerbaijan, 52% and 48% of all the trade union members were men and women correspondingly in 2019.

Mrs Muradova remarked towards the conclusion of her speech upon the need to carry out a number of measures to eliminate lacunas in the maintenance of gender equality and to make certain that our country would honour the obligations it had assumed. She also voiced her proposals to that end.

Her presentation was followed by that of Chair of the parliamentary Committee for Family, Women's and Children's Affair Hijran Huseynova who mentioned the long service of the Milli Majlis Chair Sahiba Gafarova as the leader of the relevant unit in the PACE. Mrs Huseynova brought up Mrs Gafarova's speeches and recommendations on gender matters and her excellent information of wide audiences of the realia of Azerbaijan. According to Mrs Huseynova, the overview submitted by the State Committee for Family, Women's and Children's Problems had been considered by its governing Committee in the Milli Majlis. Also, she said, another fundamental task that all the countries of the world had to attend to was that of providing equal opportunities to see to it that women would work yet more efficiently for the society progress. This tendency is in agreement with the policy implemented in Azerbaijan, in Mrs Huseynova's opinion.

The Great Leader Heydar Aliyev took fundamental steps to protect women's right and eliminate discrimination against them despite the complicated situation during the first years of the independence of our country. The State Committee for Women's Problems was established to the orders of the national leader Heydar Aliyev in 1998. The Leader gave women of the country a higher profile whilst his decrees on implementing the state policy of the Azerbaijan Republic regarding women provided the latter with extensive opportunities to act in any area of interest.

Protection of women's rights and provision of yet broader opportunities for them are also amongst the priority vectors of the state policy of President Ilham Aliyev, Mrs Huseynova stressed before her narrative about the commendable steps taken in that area.

Deputy Chairs of the Milli Majlis Fazayil Ibrahimli and Adil Aliyev, the parliamentary committee chairmen Siyavush Novruzov and Zahid Oruj and the MPs Malahat Ibrahimghizi, Nurlan Hasanov, Razi Nurullayev, Gudrat Hasanguliyev, Etibar Aliyev and Fazayil Agamali took part in the conversation. They stated their views on the annual report of the State Committee and let their own pertaining opinions and proposals be known. The State Committee Chair Bahar Muradova, in turn, commented on their feedback.

The annual report by the State Committee was noted duly, after which Speaker Sahiba Gafarova said that the Milli Majlis passed addresses to the compatriots and fellow citizens living in various parts of the world on the eve of the World Azerbaijanis' Solidarity Day celebrated each year. Now, the last and seventh item of the agenda of the current sitting was about just that, she explained.

MP Elnur Allahverdiyev read aloud the text of the Milli Majlis address on the occasion of the World Azerbaijanis' Solidarity Day.

The address was voted for and approved subsequently.

(The text of the address is published in the mass media).

Now that the agenda of the sitting had been finished, Madame Chair declared the autumn session of the Parliament completed, today's sitting having been the last one in it.

Madame Chair made a brief overview of the work done during the session; she mentioned the 19 sittings conducted and the 86 laws and resolutions enacted during it. The Milli Majlis had discharged in full its legislative authority pursuant to the Constitution and had finished the work needed to extend the parliamentary support to the on-going implementation of the internal and external policies of the esteemed President Ilham Aliyev of the Azerbaijan Republic, she emphasised.

This autumn session of the Milli Majlis coincided with the Patriotic War waged by the people of Azerbaijan under the guidance of Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Ilham Aliyev. In its thoughts and in its heart of hearts, the Parliament of Azerbaijan was in every battlefield of that war to liberate Garabagh.

However, Mrs Gafarova went on, parliamentary diplomacy was our weapon of choice. Everything was done to unmask the Armenian Fascism for its true abominable face to be seen by all.

Chair Gafarova herself and the leaders of the concerned committees and friendship groups of the Milli Majlis had sent almost 500 letters to the parliaments of various countries with which the Milli Majlis co-operates as well as to the international parliamentary organisations. What is more, Madame Chair and the Azerbaijani MPs had made regular local and overseas mass media appearances, held online and telephone conversations with their overseas colleagues and had used every means available to them to secure the international support for the righteous cause of our nation.

The Milli Majlis is going to call a special meeting that will be devoted to the great Victory won in the Patriotic War. Besides, the Parliament has passed an appeal to President and Commander-in-Chief Ilham Aliyev and to the people of Azerbaijan to congratulate the venerable President on the resolution of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Highland Garabagh in complete compliance with the international legal standards and principles and thanked the nation for its backing to the wise government of the country by Mr Aliyev.

Returning to the current sitting, Madame Chair said that the Members of the Milli Majlis as well as the employees of the Milli Majlis Staff and Affairs Department had transferred AZN 182,000 to the YASAT Fund incepted by the decree of President Aliyev to cater for the wounded war veterans and shahid families.

It has been almost a year that the world including Azerbaijan have lived in a pandemic situation. Though the new reality has impacted the work of the Milli Majlis, it could not have prevented the latter from preserving a harmonious operating environment. The parliamentary committee and commission meetings have been held online.

Our MPs monitored the parliamentary elections in Georgia and Kyrgyzstan and the presidential election in Moldova.

Several envoys of other countries - including ambassadors - called at the Milli Majlis in the same period.

During his official visit to Azerbaijan in October, Chairman of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey Mr Mustafa Sentop did not omit to come to the Milli Majlis and speak at one of its meetings, in doing which he once again made evident the political, diplomatic and moral support of the brotherly Turkey to the just cause of Azerbaijan. That Turkish delegation's visit was another manifestation of the bonds of unity and brotherhood between the two countries.

The Human Rights Committee of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey formed a new sub-committee in keeping with the arrangement that the parliamentary speakers of Turkey and Azerbaijan had made during that visit. The new sub-committee was tasked with investigating the facts of the Armenian armed forces' violation of the international legal standards and principles concerned with human rights during the Patriotic War of Azerbaijan.

The sub-committee chairman and members arrived in Azerbaijan and had meetings with the Milli Majlis Chair and the General Prosecutor of the country. They also travelled to the Azerbaijani towns of Ganja, Tovuz and Barda hit hard by the terrorist attacks of the Armenian Fascists; down there, they had conversations with the affected members of the local communities, according to Mrs Gafarova.

In November, then, the former PM and Speaker of the Turkish Parliament Binali Yildirim visited our country; he met with President Ilham Aliyev and came to the Milli Majlis, Mrs Gafarova continued.

Besides, members of the groups of friendship with Azerbaijan in the parliaments of France and Italy travelled to our country to witness their support after the Patriotic War. They met with the Milli Majlis Chair; they went to the towns of Agdam and Ganja where they could see the crimes committed by the Armenian terrorists with their own eyes.

Concluding her speech, Madame Chair emphasised that the Milli Majlis had completed its autumn session and the year 2020 in general successfully. She thanked the MPs for their effective work before speaking to the wonderful holidays lying ahead: our nation would be celebrating the World Azerbaijanis' Solidarity Day and the New Year's advent.

Madame Chair congratulated the MPs and the attending mass media people on the holidays. She also suggested congratulatory messages should be sent to President Ilham Aliyev and First Vice President Mehriban Aliyeva. She wished them both further achievements in their cause of the continued strengthening and development of the Azerbaijani State and improving the prosperity of our nation further.

Mrs Gafarova's words were met with applause.

Next, Chair Gafarova declared the autumn parliamentary session of 2020 complete. The National Anthem was sounded and with that, both the sitting and the 2020 autumn session of the Milli Majlis were over.

The Press and Public Relations Department
The Milli Majlis