First Women’s Bar Association Founded in Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan has one of the lowest rates of female legal professionals in the Newly Independent States, and support to women lawyers is greatly needed. To this end, USAID has been working together with the American Bar Association (ABA) to establish Azerbaijan’s first Women’s Bar Association. A gender-specific bar association was conceived to help create solutions that are unique to the professional challenges and barriers facing women, and to provide a forum for women to lobby for their rights.
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(Right to left:) Frank Hespe, ABA CEELI Country Director for Azerbaijan, Anne Derse, U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan and David Rubino, USAID Rule of Law Liaison, responded to media questions at the May 14 kick-off event
Photo Credit: Trend News Agency |
In November 2006, a working group of twenty female Azeri attorneys was formed after the first USAID-funded International Conference on Women Lawyers was held in Baku. Since that time, there have been multiple working group meetings organized and conducted by ABA staff to develop a draft charter and membership criteria for the new association. The establishment of Azerbaijan’s first Women’s Bar Association was completed in March 2007 by the filing of a charter with the Ministry of Justice.
On May 14, 2007, a kick-off event was held to celebrate the official launch of the Women’s Bar Association (WBA). Approximately 80 people attended, including prominent lawyers, judges and Members of Parliament. U.S. Ambassador Anne Derse served as keynote speaker.
“The Women’s Bar Association will ensure that Azerbaijan continues to stand as a leader on issues of social reform and democratic progress. Today, we celebrate the efforts of a number of brave and ambitious Azerbaijani women who decided to join together to capitalize on the resource that they all valued most – their collective legal minds. I congratulate you on this success,” said Ambassador Derse, directing her comments to the WBA founders. “I am sure that the Azerbaijan Women’s Bar Association will be an influential group in forming the future of this country, and the future of its blossoming democracy.”
By June 2007, WBA membership had expanded to 85 attorneys and is expected to increase further as a result of recent positive media coverage.
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