Azerbaijani top official: Legal reforms will be further deepened in 2011

An interview with Fuad Alasgarov, Head of Department for Coordination of Law Enforcement Agencies of the Azeri president administration.


Mr.Alasgarov can we consider 2010 as successful in terms of reforms in the sphere of law enforcement and human rights protection?

2010 was remembered for several important changes in the legal system. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev launched a number of important initiatives to increase the effectiveness of the legal system and administration of justice. The country continued legislative and institutional reforms. The range of practical activities was expanded. Important innovations were introduced in the process of development of administration of justice.

For instance, the Law on administrative proceedings and the Administrative Procedure Code were adopted on 21 October 2005 and 30 June 2009 respectively. The Law and the Code will become effective on 1 January 2011. This Law will replace the numerous legislative acts regulating the legal relationship between citizens and the State. The Law will set more precisely the rights of citizens in administrative proceedings, simplify the process of administrative governance and at the same time contribute to its efficiency.

The law defines legal principles and grounds for administrative bodies' activities related to adoption, implementation and cancellation of administrative acts. The law also regulates issues related to proceedings on administrative complaints and responsibility of administrative bodies and officials.

The Administrative Procedure Code sets administrative courts' jurisdiction and procedural rules and principles to resolve administrative disputes. In addition, structure of judiciary of the Azerbaijan Republic underwent some changes in 2010 aimed at increasing its effectiveness. Total number of judges in Azerbaijan was increased to 600 by a Presidential Decree. In addition, 78 candidates for judges passed all examinations and long-term training courses and were appointed as judges.

Further, the Serious Crimes Court of the Republic of Azerbaijan was eliminated and four regional serious crimes courts were established instead. Along with that, the Azerbaijan Republic's Military Court for serious crimes was eliminated, and its powers were transferred to military courts. Elimination of military courts of Aghdam, Gazakh, Lankaran and Sumgait resulted in the widening of territorial jurisdiction and increase in the number of judges of other military courts including newly established Jalilabad military court.

President Ilham Aliyev appointed judges of the serious crimes courts and administrative-economic courts by his orders issued in October and December 2010. There were some developments as regards execution of court decisions. The Law on officers of court and bailiffs, the Law on execution of court decisions, as well as the Criminal Code, Administrative Offences Code and the Code of Execution of Judgments were amended in order to improve execution of decisions of courts and other agencies.

In 2010, the country also continued reforms in the field of human rights. President Ilham Aliyev exercised his right of legislative initiative and submitted, in October, a draft constitutional law on the amendments and additions to the Constitutional Law on Human Rights Commissioner (Ombudsman) of the Azerbaijan Republic for consideration by the Parliament. The draft is aimed at implementation of provisions of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment. The draft provides for the widening of functions of the Ombudsman, establishment of a national preventive group and some kind of immunity for the group's members in order to reflect the Ombudsman in constitutional law as the national preventive mechanism. This will create an opportunity for the more effective functioning of the mechanism to protect the rights set forth in Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

As regards developments in the functioning of public prosecution offices, I should mention the steps that were taken in order to create a centralized information and communication system for these bodies in accordance with the State Program on modernization of the functioning of public prosecution offices for 2009-2011. The structure of the Prosecutor General's Office underwent some changes, and the Legal Support and Information Department was established there. These measures will help to organize internal and inter-department correspondence in e-format, electronic exchange of documents between central and territorial structures of the public prosecution authority, video conferencing and video telephony, and a more efficient exchange of information with other government agencies, the media, NGOs and general public using high-tech equipment for information transmission. These measures will also ensure the safety of information exchange.

The country continued conducting reforms in the sphere of recruitment to the public prosecution office. The number of young employees increased significantly and reached 41 percent following the introduction of a competition based recruitment system. Another innovation in this area was that 98 young specialists, who have successfully passed a competition, were involved in the mandatory training at the Academy of Justice of the Ministry of Justice. The persons who have received a certificate of admission to the profession were subsequently appointed to vacancies in the public prosecution office.

Changes took place in the interior agencies. According to the Presidential decree on improvement of police stations, 61 new police stations were built over the past two years; work has been completed to make '102' service available throughout the country; the number of surveillance cameras, installed in connection with the use of Safe City video surveillance service, reached 1,110. 228 out of 462 payphones in the Baku city were equipped with video cameras in accordance with the Plan of comprehensive measures to curb the spread of cases of knowingly false terrorism alarm. In 2011, 234 more payphones are planned to be equipped with cameras. According to the Cabinet of Ministers order of July 2010 on creation of video surveillance system in areas and facilities with large concentrations of people, video cameras are planned to be installed at subway stations and in trains. Furthermore, digital cameras will be installed at 60 bus stops within the Intellectual Transport project.

Administrative offenses registration system, which covers the police agencies of Baku, Sumgayit and Absheron, has been put into operation. At the next stage, this system is planned to be introduced in Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic and other regions of the country. Direct connection of all regional police agencies to the Central server of the unified information retrieval system (information portal) through fiber optic cables has been completed. The process of connecting the police agencies to a system of electronic circulation of documents has been completed over the past two years. Currently, the documents are sent in electronically. In addition, the territorial police agencies of Baku, Ganja and Absheron region switched to TETRA radio communication system. Connection of police departments in all regions to this system will be completed in 2011.

It is noted that the penalties under the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan for some crimes (battery, theft and others) are too harsh. Some foreign and local experts believe that the penalties for such crimes should be mitigated, and that punishments alternative to imprisonment should be introduced. Is work being conducted to change legislation in this regard, and what innovations are expected to be made in this regard in the near future?

We always pay attention to the issues related to introduction of developed countries' positive practices in the field of criminal law into Azerbaijan's legislation, implementation of relevant provisions of international documents, which Azerbaijan is a party to, and, in general, improvement of the Criminal Code. In this regard, as agreed with the Council of Europe, leading foreign specialists in criminal law have examined the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan and made proposals to improve the Code. A decision was taken to establish a working group to analyse the proposals and resolve issues, difficulties and gaps in the application of the Criminal Code. The Working Group was chaired by the Chairman of the Supreme Court. The working group included law-enforcement officers, judges, lawyers, scholars and independent experts.

It is possible to set some examples of conceptual changes in the Criminal Code, made in view of experts' suggestions:


Rapid development of information and communication technologies in line with priority directions of economic development identified by the President has been recorded over recent years. The development of this sphere requires its reliable legal protection. For this purpose, Azerbaijan has joined the Convention on Cybercrime; a whole chapter of the Criminal Code has been revised and included in the above-mentioned draft law in order to bring the Code into conformity with the Convention. The work over the draft law which provides for more than 300 amendments to the Criminal Code is at the stage of completion. After this work is finalized, the draft will be submitted for discussion by the Parliament.

There are some problems with application of arrest as a restrictive measure by courts in Azerbaijan. The Plenum of the Supreme Court adopted a special decision on this matter. What necessary steps should be taken in this regard?

Indeed, the Supreme Court studied the practice of a number of first instance courts regarding the application of arrest as a restrictive measure, extending the term of detention on remand and replacing detention on remand with a house arrest. The analysis of judicial practices revealed that courts mainly comply with the legislation in this area. At the same time, the analysis revealed breaches of legislation in some cases. The Plenum of the Supreme Court made a decision to effectively ensure the rights of accused persons during examination of issues related to application of arrest as a restrictive measure and extension of the term of detention on remand. The Supreme Court emphasized the importance of fulfilling the requirements of the Constitution, Articles 5 and 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the criminal procedure law, as well as the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights.

It should also be noted that the judges, who have committed offenses while applying procedural enforcement measures, were brought to disciplinary liability. Offices of three judges out of 14 brought to liability were terminated; two judges were transferred to another position; the remaining judges were subjected to disciplinary sanctions in the form of reprimand and admonition.

A series of decisions were made in 2010 to regulate the migration processes and ensure security of the country. What measures will be taken in this regard next year?

As you know, measures and activities to be conducted to improve migration processes are provided for in the State Migration Program. This document at the same time identifies the directions of public policy in the sphere of migration and the conception for regulation of migration. Most of the activities under the State Program have been carried out during the recent period. Activities were continued in 2010 to improve migration regulation system and combat illegal migration.

A unified migration information system of the State Migration Service has been created in order to conduct registration of foreigners and stateless persons residing or temporarily staying in the Republic of Azerbaijan, provide state agencies involved in regulation of migration processes with necessary information, automatize the processing of migration related documents, inquiries and analysis and improve electronic services in this regard. Important work was also conducted to combat illegal migration. About 11,104 foreigners were made answerable for violating migration laws over the first 11 months of 2010. 8,479  of them were deported, others were fined and their stay in the country was legalized.

As to directions of the work for the next year, here are just a few of them: development and adoption of the draft Migration Code; improvement of legislative framework for biometric identification and creation of conditions for its introduction; completion of the work on preparation of biometric passports; development of existing information systems; improvement of legislation regarding visas. Work will continue to strengthen cooperation with relevant agencies of foreign countries and with international organizations dealing with migration issues.

What changes are expected in law enforcement sphere in 2011?

Legal reforms are a gradual process. This feature of reforms is reflected in constant work on improvement of both legislation and practical application of laws. All works done have been implemented under Azerbaijan President's concept on modernization of legal system. Activities to deepen legal reforms will be continued in 2011.


/Trend/