Azerbaijan takes serious children's rights
By Amina Nazarli
The international conference on “25th anniversary of Convention on the Rights of Children: Realities and Prospects” was held at the Azerbaijani Cabinet of Ministers on November 21.
Addressing the event, UNICEF Baku office head, Andro Shilakadze said children's rights are taken very seriously in Azerbaijan.
Speaking about the establishment of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Shilakadze noted that Azerbaijan has joined the convention in 1992.
He underlined the progress Azerbaijan has reached in the field of economy, health, education and others.
UNICEF’s representative also spoke about significant progress made in Azerbaijan in the field of gender equality.
As he said, however, the country has some problems related to state of disabilities. “This is an important issue which requires an appropriate solution. The country has some problems, associated with the integration of the disabled people into society,” he underlined.
Shilakadze also recalled the necessity of giving attention to parenting children of preschool age.
Vice-Speaker of the Parliament Bahar Muradova, in turn, said
ensuring children’s rights are among Azerbaijan’s main policies, as
for many other countries around the world.
“Azerbaijan has adopted a number of laws on the children’s rights.
The Cabinet of Ministers attaches great importance to ensuring the
rights of children and improvement the legal framework in this
area. That is why Azerbaijan has joined all agreements and
conventions on the rights of children,” Muradova noted.
She noted that after gaining independence, Azerbaijan has conducted important work in this area. “Particular attention is paid to cooperation with UNICEF,” she stressed.
Parliamentary Committee Head Rabiyat Aslanova also said that Azerbaijan pays serious attention to the children's rights.
“Children spend most of their time in the virtual world- the Internet. And the most dangerous thing is that, they get more information from the virtual world than from the real one,” she noted.
She gave examples of crimes, committed by children, noting that some 776 crimes were reported in 2013. This number, she noted, dropped to 486 in the first nine months of 2014.
“Some crimes were committed by the children aged 13-14 years. I suppose that the responsibility of this trend lies on us, the adults,” Aslanova underlined.