Speaker of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova delivered a speech as a guest of honour at the event ‘The Role of Youth in Parliamentary Co-operation’ at the Headquarters of the Non-Aligned Movement Youth Organisation (NAMYO) on 14 September.

The Speaker of the Azerbaijani Parliament first acquainted herself with the arrangements in place at the Headquarters.

In her address to the young people that followed, Speaker Sahiba Gafarova talked about Azerbaijan’s important contribution to the Non-Aligned Movement during the four-year chairmanship of this organisation. It was remarked that the Azerbaijani chairmanship had coincided with a period of grave global challenges, especially COVID-19. Led by President Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijan played an important role in demonstrating solidarity within the Non-Aligned Movement and displaying its practical operation capabilities in the pandemic spell. 

She mentioned Azerbaijan’s initiatives to hold an online summit of the Non-Aligned Movement on COVID-19 and a Special session of the UN General Assembly on COVID-19. At the same time, Azerbaijan helped ensure an equal access to the vaccines and helped those countries which needed help.

The Speaker of the Milli Majlis said that the Azerbaijani chairmanship had been focused especially on strengthening the international role and institutional growth of the Non-Aligned Movement. The emergence of the Non-Aligned Movement Youth Network and Parliamentary Network at the initiative of President Ilham Aliyev was one of the important areas of the institutional development. The Non-Aligned Movement Youth Network was transformed to a Youth Organisation pursuant to the 2019 resolution.

According to the Speaker of Parliament, the Non-Aligned Movement Youth Organisation (NAMYO) and Parliamentary Network (NAMPN) perform different but complementary functions. One of them provides an international youth platform whereas the other unites the Non-Aligned Movement Member States’ Parliaments. Sahiba Gafarova stressed that those two institutions had expanded the institutional foundations of the Non-Aligned Movement and made its operations closer to parliaments, youth and society. Those entities are amongst the more important and long-term outcomes of the period of Azerbaijani chairmanship.

Touching upon the establishment of the NAMPN in her address, Speaker Sahiba Gafarova observed that, established on the sidelines of the 143^rd Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Madrid in 2021, the Parliamentary Network chaired by the Milli Majlis of Azerbaijan has formed its structure, broadened international co-operation and held five conferences in various countries in the elapsed period. The Parliamentary Network introduced the important parliamentary dimension to the activities of the Non-Aligned Movement and makes it possible to underpin the obligations assumed internationally within national parliaments, which is done through legislation and budget and parliamentary control.

The Speaker of the Milli Majlis also addressed youth’s involvement in political and public processes and accentuated the importance of them being represented in various facets of life more actively. Besides, Sahiba Gafarova commented on the significance of quality education, professional skills, decent employment and access to digital opportunities for youth development as well as on their engagement in discussions about AI, data protection and digital economy.

Speaker of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova emphasised in the conclusion of her address that the NAMYO and the NAMPN, the important legacy of the Azerbaijani chairmanship, are the active bodies serving the future of the Non-Aligned Movement.

The Press and Public Relations Department
The Milli Majlis