United Nations Radio

Azerbaijani women

Azerbaijan says it has put in place a wide range of measures to ensure women's equality, despite the challenge of conflict over a lasting territorial dispute that has displaced more than a million people. Azerbaijan is one of 11 countries reporting to the UN Committee monitoring the Convention to Eliminate Discrimination against women, at its current session. The government officials reporting to CEDAW, as the committee is known, also expressed concern over trafficking in persons in Azerbaijan, and the low representation of women in decision-making. But there is one issue that was not on their radar. UN Radio's Bissera Kostova has the report.

Narration: In the Republic of Azerbaijan one non-governmental organization is standing up for the rights of some 200 lesbian, bisexual, and transgender women.

The Gender & Development movement supports a new law that would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

In Azerbaijan, LBT or lesbian, bisexual, and transgender women experience what Nigar Naghiyeva, the coordinator of the movement, calls militant homophobia- prejudices at work, in the media, and from religious groups, and in the home.

Naghiyeva: To give you an example of what an LBT women would face, just ten days before I came here to the states, my organization had to deal with a case of an eighteen year old girl who came out as a lesbian girl to her parents, which ensued the whole nightmare when she was tied up and forced to go to a mental hospital where she stayed for ten days, being the whole time being tied up to her bed, and she was forced to take pills, and got injections, to treat her, you know, psychically, because they think lesbian is a kind of mental disorder, so when she returned home ten day after all medicated, she was badly traumatized by the whole experience. So this is the kind of treatment against homosexuality.

Narrator: Although homosexual men in Azerbaijan face similar discrimination, Naghiyeva, says homosexual women must deal with a double stigmatization - first as a woman, and then as a lesbian. Women already have less social freedom than men and are often forced into unwanted marriages.

But in its report to CEDAW, the Government of Azerbaijan makes no mention of discrimination against LBT women. Hijran Huseynova, the Chairperson of the State Committee for Family, Women, and Children Affairs, said the law covers all individuals and if rights are in fact violated then an investigation should emerge.

Huseynova: That depends on their own activity level -- that is, no one creates such specialized groups. This is indicative of the segment they occupy in society. If they are 1% or a fraction of a percent, then their activities are in the same proportion.

Narrator: Niklas Bruun, law professor and member of the CEDAW committee, questions the government's response to discriminatory behavior against LBT women.

Bruun1: I doubt how effectively they protect these women but of course in principle they should protect. If the prohibition against violence against woman is really implemented, then of course it protects all women from violence, but these groups might be especially vulnerable. That's very clear.

Narrator: Bruun added that the Republic of Azerbaijan is not the only country, where LBT women face discrimination. He says the first step to address intolerance is through recognition of equal treatment under the law.

Bruun2 : If we really want to tackle the specific problems of specific groups than we have to take into account the special difficulties that separate groups are facing. And it is very clear that women representing minorities, it might be indigenous people, it might be sexual minorities, it might be migrant women, and so on, in different countries are facing different kind of problems. And if we really want to address these problems, the governments should investigate them, really address them, and think about what to do with them, and this is an obligation in accordance with the convention.

Narrator: Professor Niklas Bruun, one of the 22 experts on the CEDAW committee. Last December, 66 member states of the UN adopted a declaration on Human Rights, sexual orientation and gender identity, but Azerbaijan was not among them.

Reporting for United Nations Radio, I'm Bissera Kostova.

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