There was a hearing on 3 March, themed ‘Family Legislation: Tradition and Modernity’ and arranged by the Milli Majlis Family, Women’s and Children’s Affairs Committee.

The committee chair Hijran Huseynova who opened the session began with a mention of the utmost importance that the founder of the Azerbaijani statehood Heydar Aliyev had attached to family and national values and that President Ilham Aliyev and First Vice President Mehriban Aliyeva are attaching now. Azerbaijani families have tangible growth opportunities at their disposal today thanks to the powerful state support, in the opinion of Mrs Huseynova.

Regarding the existing and effective national legislation on family reinforcement and protection of both women’s and children’s rights, it needs reviewing in the light of the demands and challenges of the time. Saying this, Mrs Huseynova cited some statistical figures indicating a hike in divorces and family violence cases. Communication difficulties experienced by family members, sources of social and psychological tension and adverse effects from a number of modern factors undermine the family foundation, according to Mrs Huseynova.

The parliamentary committee head proceeded to emphasise the importance of propagating the national moral values and of the enlightenment efforts that go with the propaganda. As well as that, she also underlined the need to preserve those same values.

Next, the deputy chair of the Family, Women’s and Children’s Affairs Committee Jala Aliyeva brought to the attention of the session participants the phenomena which, in her opinion, are eroding the pillars upon which the family institution stands. At that, Mrs Aliyeva suggested possible ways to avert those detrimental influences; she put forward the idea of special courses for young people intending to get married. She also commented on household violence crimes. It is not the job of only the law enforcement authorities to counter such phenomena; rather, the society as a whole should struggle against them, in Mrs Aliyeva’s opinion.

The same committee’s members Tamam Jafarova, Sadagat Valiyeva, Konul Nurullayeva and Nigyar Arpadarai then talked about in-family conflict, household violence and early marriage prevention methods and about the legislative blanks surfacing in the course of relevant troubleshooting efforts. The MPs also voiced their suggestions as to streamlining the legislation in part concerning reinforcement of the family institution and the defence of women’s and children’s rights.

The subject of the hearing was also commented on by the head of the legal support department of the State Committee for Family, Women’s and Children’s Issues Taliya Ibrahimova, the deputy director of the Education Issues Institute Anvar Abbasov, the head of the department for juvenile affairs at the Chief Public Security Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Hikmat Guliyev, a department head from the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Population Babek Huseynov and a department head from the Youth and Sports Ministry Elshan Huseynov. Other topic-specific comments came from Aynura Zeynalova of the Health Ministry, Aygun Shahbanova of the Chief Legislation Department of the Justice Ministry, a department head at the State Committee for Religious Entities Nahid Mammadov, the head of the children’s rights protection sector in the Office of the HR Ombudsman Nigyar Agayeva, the chairman of the Psychology Research Institute Elnur Rustamov and the executive director of the ‘Hopeful Future’ PA Kamala Ashumova. They shared their ideas about the work done currently to make the family institution stronger and to protect women’s and children’s rights. They also covered the relevant issues du jour and the likely solutions.

Hijran Huseynova thanked the participants for their active attitude and said that the exchange of opinions was useful as she was summing the hearing up.

MP Ramin Mammadov and other relevant persons took part in the session as well.

The Press and Public Relations Department
The Milli Majlis