An overview of women’s work and employment in Azerbaijan
Corruption in the governing bureaucracy has often been described as “pervasive”, “rampant”, or “ubi-
qitous”. Law enforcement corruption is widespread. Police often levies spurious, informal fines for traffic
and other minor violations and extracts protection money from local residents. In 2008 and 2009, the ex-
ecutive branch continued to exert a strong influence over the judiciary, and the judiciary remained corrupt
and inefficient. Key provisions of the government’s 2007 national strategy for increasing transparency and
combating corruption still had not been implemented at the end of 2009 (US Dept of State 2009, 2010).
According to the World Bank’s worldwide governance indicators (WGI), Azerbaijan’s comparative position
since 1998 improved on two of six indicators used though the country still is to be found in the world’s
lower half. On voice and accountability, the country in 2008 was in the nineth percentile, indicating that
about at least 80% of countries worldwide had better ratings; on political stability and absence of violence,
it was in the seventh percentile, thus with about 60% of countries rated better; on government effectiveness,
it was in the also in the seventh percentile; on regulatory quality, its score was relatively best, in the sixth
percentile; on rule of law the country was in the seventh percentile, and on control of corruption it was in
2008 in the nineth percentile, just above the lowest 10% (World Bank 2009b). Also, it has been computed
for 1999-2003 that Azerbaijan had an immensely large shadow economy, covering over 60% of the official
GDP (Schneider 2005).
Women’s participation in politics and governance structures in Azerbaijan has declined sharply in the
transition period, although their participation is nowhere legally restricted. Women still made up 40% of
the Supreme Soviet of the Azerbaijan Republic in 1989, partly due to the quota system that set the level of
women’s representation at a minimum of 33%. Within one year of independence, women’s representation
had declined to only 4.3% (website AGIC). After 1991 women NGOs emerged; in March 2010, we counted
on the website of the Azerbaijan Gender Information Center (AGIC) 118 of such NGOs. Official structures
and policies aiming at gender mainstreaming were created. In 1998 the State Committee for Women’s Issues
was established by Presidential Decree, later transformed into the State Committee on Family, Women and
Children's Issues. In 2000 president Alijev issued a Decree on the State Women's Policy. At the same time,
the Cabinet of Ministers approved the National Action Plan on Women's Issues (2000-2005) and ordered
the selection of gender focal points in all government institutions to bear the responsibility for promoting
gender equality. Attention in politics for gender issues increased (Cosby et al 2007). Yet, the representation
of women in the political arena remains weak. In 1995, 15 of 124 parliamentary seats or 12.1% were held by
women, falling between 2000 and 2005 below 11%. By 2009, women held 14 of 123 parliamentary seats or
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