The Tuesday event was opened by the speech of Mohammad Naciri, the regional director of UN’s Women for Asia and Pacific, who called for implementation of UN resolutions on women, and greater accountability on the side of member states regarding these regulations.
Sedaghat Ghahraman Ava, the Chair of Azerbaijan Republic’s state committee for family, women, and children affairs, was the second speaker of the conference, who elaborated on her country’s measures in the field of eliminating violence against women and children.
She said Baku is one of the supporters of establishing peace and security in the world by settling existing conflicts and finding ways to resolve conflicts.
“Women and children undergo physical and mental exploitation in conflicts,” she said, expressing regret that the Azerbaijan Republic is engaged in a military conflict with Armenia in Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Following Ghahraman Ava’s speech, a message by Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Gholam-Hossein Dehqani was read out to the participants by Forouzandeh Vadiati, the Foreign Ministry’s Director-General for Women and Human Rights Affairs.
During his speech, Dehqani said real fight against terrorism begins with complete eradication of the Wahhabi ideology promoted by Saudi Arabia and its allies in the region.
“Real fight against these moves must start from thoughts and ideologies, which are guided by a network and funded by reactionary states,” Dehqani said.
Delbar Nazari, the Afghan minister of women’s affairs, was the next speaker who elaborated on the measures carried out by the government of Afghanistan to decrease violence against women and achieve sustainable security.
The opening ceremonies were wrapped up with a speech by Iranian Vice-President for Women and Family Affairs Massoumeh Ebtekar.
Later in the day-long event, two panel discussions were held, with high-profile speakers discussing the role of gender in peace-building and conflict resolution.
The first panel discussed the effective implementation of mechanisms in the field, and the second one conferred discussed building local capacity of women’s NGOs.
The first panel was chaired by Forouzandeh Vadiati and attended by former presidential aide Shahindokht Molaverdi, Swedish Ambassador to Tehran Helena Sangeland, UNICEF Representative to Iran Will Parks, and university professors Nasrin Mosaffa and Pouria Askari.
The second panel was also chaired by Fatemeh Ashrafi, the executive director of Association for Protection of Refugees, Women, and Children.
It was attended by Mohammad Naciri, the UNFPA Representative to Iran Leila Joudane, senior politician and university professor Elaheh Koolaee, and expert in the field of refugees’ studies Katayoun Hossein-Nejad.
