Domestic

Home page

Domestic

International conference â€œHuman rights policy of European Union and Council of Europe: Azerbaijanâ€™s prospects in the framework of Eurointegration processesâ€ starts in Baku

10 December 2007 12:36 (UTC +04:00)

Rights defender Arzu Abdullayeva making a keynote speech said the event is devoted to December 10 â€“ International Human Rights Day. She underlined that there are problems in the field of human rights in Azerbaijan and there is a need for discussions.
Special representative of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe in Azerbaijan Denis Bribosia spoke about Azerbaijanâ€™s prospects of integration into international organizations. He noted that the process of integration of any country is a long and hard way. Noting that Azerbaijan undertook commitments when acceding to the Council of Europe, the special representative said freedom of media, protection of human rights, adoption of the law on alternative military service, modernization of the Electoral Code, policy on national minorities, judicial reforms, adoption of the law on local self-government institutions are among them. He appreciated the preparation of the law on municipalities in Azerbaijan. Mentioning the recent statement of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe Terry Davis on the state of media in the country, Denis Bribosia said the council worries about the state of media.
Ingrid GÃ¶ssinger, representative of Europa House in Azerbaijan underlined that the issue on human rights is debated all over the world.
She said that European Union (EU) has prepared project â€œEuropean means in Democracyâ€ costing â‚¬2 million. The content of the project is to learn European experience in human rights field, to carry out seminar trainings on this field.
Ms. Gossinger called on NGOs dealing with human rights in Azerbaijan to participate in this project.
CE co-rapporteur on Azerbaijan Andres Herkel made his speech in Azeri. He expressing his anxiety about human rights and media situation in Azerbaijan said that debates should be held for carrying out reforms.
US ambassador to Azerbaijan Anne Derse spoke about relations between Azerbaijan and NATO. Ambassador linked it with countryâ€™s not acceding to EU and CE. She said that NATO is not only military organization, but it is organization which protects human rights.
Ms. Derse expressed her satisfaction with Azerbaijanâ€™s integration into Europe and countryâ€™s choosing right policy for democracy.
She cited Heydar Aliyevâ€™s opinion â€œAzerbaijanâ€™s path is democracyâ€ and stressed her satisfaction with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyevâ€™s loyalty to this way.
â€œWe support political choice of Azerbaijan. We believe that integration is the best way which will ensure independence and security of Azerbaijan,â€ she said.
Azerbaijani Ombudsman Elmira Suleymanova also addressed the event and said that political, economic reforms were carried out in our country spoke about improvement in the field of court within past years. She said that there were problems in human rights field and constant debates were carried, measures were taken regarding it. /APA/