About Disabled Women Society Public Union
"Disabled Women's Society" Public Union was established in 1997. It was registered by the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Azerbaijan on December 11, 1998.
Its purpose is to improve the social, psychological and physical health and economic conditions of women and girls with disabilities, and to protect their rights within the framework of the Republic of Azerbaijan and international legislation.
The organization’s primary mission is to study problems of disabled women and girls (including refugees, IDPs, war survivors) and to render professional assistance and psychological support to solve their social, economic, educational, employment and health problems.
The organization aims at raising public awareness on existing problems and promotion of disabled women rights to prevent and decrease violence against them.
Vision: The Society aspires to elimination of physical and psychological barriers which exist between disabled people and society.
We work on strengthening connections of women and girls with disabilities with public life.
We inform local communities about problems encountered by them. We introduce our society and decision makers to progressive and comprehensive changes necessary for bringing healthy and productive life to women and girls with disabilities.
We develop strong working relationships with government, municipality, local and international NGOs, and local communities.
The organization's focus area is identifying major problems faced by women and girls as with disabilities and rendering social, legal, educational, economic, rehabilitation and psychological services for them in order prevent and end violence against them and to make them stronger and more independent.
The organization is constituent-led: its staff members, board members and volunteers are primarily women with disabilities. The organization works in Baku and regions of Azerbaijan. It has branches in most of the regional districts. In each location we work we look for active and initiative women with and without disabilities and involve them in planning and implementation of the organization's projects and services.
The organization works on providing activities for implementation of the rights of marginalized women with the focus on women and girls with disabilities (experiencing intersecting forms of discrimination) which face gender based violence in their families and also public places. The organization's activities are focused in rural territories where discrimination and various forms of gender based violence against women and girls with disabilities are most obvious.
The Society has been accredited by the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection on April 24, 2014 as an organization to deliver services to women and girls suffering from domestic violence. Our organization implemented number of projects on prevention and fighting against violence of women and girls with disabilities with the goal to protect their rights, issued books and brochures, CDs, conducted public awareness activities and training courses, established productive cooperation with number of government and nongovernment organizations. We have extensive experience of working in Baku and the regions in our country where we have local regional branches and staff with offices to help these women and girls in solving their social and economic problems.
DWSA has special consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council since 2019.
