Izmir hosts High level Conference on the Future of the European Court of Human Rights

A High level Conference on the Future of the European Court of Human Rights attended by the justice ministers and court experts is underway in Izmir, Turkey.

Azerbaijani is represented by Justice Minister and Chairman of the Court-Legal Council Fikret Mammadov, depertament chief of the Court-Legal Council Javid Huseynov and plenipotentiary representative of Azerbaijan to ECHR Chingiz Asgarov.

The Izmir Conference is the last large meeting organized within the framework of the Turkish chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. Ahmet Davutoglu, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Turkey delivered an opening speech on behalf of the Turkish Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.

Then Thorbjørn Jagland, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Jean-Paul Costa, President of the European Court of Human Rights, Representative of the European Union, Thomas Hammarberg, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights addressed the conference.

The conference pursues three main goals in the context of ensuring the effectiveness of the supervisory machinery set up by the European Convention on Human Rights and maintaining momentum in the efforts to achieve this. The first is to make a preliminary assessment of the impact of Protocol No. 14. The second is to take stock of what has been achieved by the reform process launched by the Interlaken conference in February 2010 and the third is to reflect upon further ideas for pursuing that reform. Russia was last to ratify Protocol No. 14.

Azerbaijani Justice Minister Fikret Mammadov is also expected to deliver speech at the conference. On Wednesday, participants of the conference will adopt Final Izmir Declaration, which will describe an action plan.


/APA/