Gender Based Violence in Azerbaijan 2020

The primary objective of this report is to provide broad insights into the existing situation in Azerbaijan and how domestic violence and the public reaction to it evolved in the past few years.

The report draws from the baseline report of 2017 on femicides¹ expanded with the desk research and media and social media monitoring as related to the cases of domestic violence in Azerbaijan.

The methodology employed is a qualitative research that has the following aspects:

• desk research of past history, legislative framework and existing reporting efforts in the past;
• interview of the activist feminist leader, public figure and victim of domestic violence and the lawyer litigating cases of domestic violence;
• media monitoring and social media coverage of the cases of femicide and domestic violence incidents collected by the activist network;
• listing of some of the cases illustrating the existing situation;
• review of the response to femicides, public outrage manifestations and response of the government or lack of such.

Although the research mainly resorted to the qualitative data, the quantitative data has also been used to supplement the study and allow for more reliable, deeper insights into the existing situation.

In order to get a better understanding of the overall context leading to cases of domestic violence, this report includes data derived from the interviews with non-governmental actors, monitoring media coverage of the cases of reports on femicides and analyzing the official legal and policy response to the public reaction.

Interviews were conducted with civil society actors engaged in the struggle against domestic violence, including the defense attorney representing victims of domestic violence, activist and a civil society member/victim of domestic violence².