Conference on Sharing Best Practices on Fundamental Rights and cooperation of civil society organizations of Hungary and Azerbaijan was held in Duna Palota in April 4th 2014.
Many NGOs from Azerbaijan and Hungary took part in this conference to discuss human rights in both countries and future cooperation in the civil society.
The ambassador of Azerbaijan to Hungary, his Excellency Vilayat Guliyev opened the conference with his speech, and emphasized the importance of the cooperation of civil societies of between countries.
His speech was followed by presentations by Ulicska Lájós from the Ministry of Human Resources in Hungary (State Secretariat for Social Inclusion), Dr. Csikós Tímea from the Office of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights who talked about the Human Rights situation in Hungary.
Leaders of the Non Governmental Organizations in Azerbaijan also shared information about the Human Rights Situation in Azerbaijan to the participants of the conference. Vusala Huseynova (Democratic Reform Youth Union) stated that Republic of Azerbaijan was the first country among the Commonwealth of Independent States to give importance for rights of women and created Women’s Commission in 1998.
National NGO Forum of Azerbaijan, “Eternal Flame” Public Union of Cultural Relations and NAYORA (National Assembly of Youth Organizations of Republic of Azerbaijan) showcased great examples of their activities. Tarana Huseynova, project coordinator of NAYORA highlighted that the organization will host conference of No Hate Speech Movement of the Council of Europe in October and 300 participants are expected.
Leaders of Hungarian civil organizations, Akos Dominus from Foundation of Subjective Values (host organization), Aaron Stevens from Scottish Reform Church, Losoncz Maria from FSZK (Equal Opportunities for Disables people), Karadi-Heder Eniko from NANE (Women Against Racism Association), Judit Koppany from Artemisszió and Omer Almak from Dialogue Platform gave elaborate presentations on their field of work and shared their best practices.
Presentations followed by presentation about the possible cooperation between the civil society organizations of the countries. Halasz Dora (National and Family Institute of the Government) talked about opportunities of Erasmus+ program of the European Commission. Farasat Gurbanov, the executive director of the Council of State Support under the Auspices of the Republic of Azerbaijan who supported this project talked about the grants the Council is providing to civil society actors beyond the borders of Azerbaijan. He states that the Council has supported 30 projects from 14 counties in 2014, and informed the participants about the grants available for next year are available as well. He also highlighted the development of Azerbaijan in terms of economy, politics as well as civil society and how the government of Azerbaijan is open for cooperation with European counties and integration to Europe.
