PACE co-rapporteurs visit hold meetings in Baku [PHOTO]

By Azernews

By Amina Nazarli

Co-rapporteurs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Stefan Schennach and Cezar Florin Preda held meetings with the Azerbaijani officials during their visit to Baku.

The co-rapporteurs met Deputy Speaker of the Azerbaijani Parliament Bahar Muradova, who noted that the country, as a full member of PACE, has always tried to fulfill its obligations and preferred cooperation with this organization.

Noting that “our relations have long ago entered a new phase”, she stressed that Azerbaijan carries out constitutional reforms for preserving civil rights regardless of their ethnic origin.

Muradova further noted the importance of the issues on struggling against corruption, ensuring freedom of the press. She added that the 2016 referendum in Azerbaijan has played a key role in regulation of those issues in legal form. 

The deputy speaker noted that Azerbaijan is interested in using its resources for solving problems in a precisely wider context such as at the level of regional or international organizations.

Muradova recalled the fact that last year was the year of Multiculturalism in Azerbaijan. “2017 was declared as the year of Islamic Solidarity. These two expressions bring light to Azerbaijan’s involvement in the processes going around the world,” she added.

In turn, Stefan Schennach spoke of the aim of their visit to the country, further hailing  Azerbaijan’s accomplishments in the last year.

The PACE delegation also had meetings with Chairman of the Azerbaijani Parliament Committee for International Relations and Interparliamentary Ties, head of the Azerbaijani delegation to PACE Samad Seyidov and Deputy Chairman of the Parliament’s Committee on legal policy and state building Rovshan Rzayev.

As part of the visit, the PACE co-rapporteurs also met with Interior Minister,Colonel-General Ramil Usubov.

Usubov informed the guests that the ministry has prepared and is implementing a Special Plan of events for the purpose of full-scale accomplishment of the tasks following from the orders signed by President Ilham Aliyev on human rights protection in the country.

Speaking about establishing close cooperation between the Interior Ministry and the Council of Europe, Usubov noted that the work which is carried out within these relations and the performed measures aimed at providing the rights and freedoms of the person have special importance.

“In the republic with direct participation of experts from the leading countries of Europe, we have accepted a number of the regulations relying on democratic values and new laws determining the legal basis of activities of police, protection of the rights and freedoms of the person and citizens”, he stressed.

It was noted that the work directed to further increase in professionalism of staff of law-enforcement bodies, studying of the international experience is performed systemically. For this purpose, for the last five years about 2500 employees of the Interior Ministry participated in various training and seminars through the Council of Europe, OSCE and other international organizations.

The minister informed that appeals about violation by Interior employees of the rights and freedoms of the person and citizen are quickly and objectively investigated by the relevant management of the ministry and adequate measures are taken immediately. Some 1,579 employees were punished only for the last five years for ill-treatment of citizens, various offenses, according to the minister.

The co-reporters expressed gratitude for the detailed information about the carried-out work in the field of protection of the rights and freedoms of the person.

Azerbaijan is one of nine Council of Europe member states currently subject to the Assembly’s monitoring procedure, which involves ongoing dialogue with the authorities, regular reports and occasional debates on a state’s progress in honoring its obligations and commitments to the organization.