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Chairman of Ago group Per Sjogren: We will focus more on media issues during our visit to Azerbaijan

26 February 2008 14:26 (UTC +04:00)

He underlined that several conferences will be held during Swedenâ€™s chairmanship.
â€œWe will focus our attention on the reforms in the European Court of Human Rights, rights of children and handicapped people and adoption of National Action Plan on human rights in every country. Of course, one of the main issues is the continuation of Council of Europeâ€™s cooperation with European Union, OSCE and UN. As regards my chairmanship of AGO group, another chairman will be elected in May, as I will chair the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers. We will visit the region early in April. Later, new chairman of the group will be elected,â€ he said.
Per Sjogren said several events on democratic processes and development of democracy will be held during Swedenâ€™s chairmanship of the CE Committee of Ministers.
â€œFor example, we support Forum for the Future of Democracy and Azerbaijan will also attend the next conference of the Forum in Madrid. The conference will cover issues on elections and civil society. We are working on the organization of regional conference for South Caucasus countries now. I can say that, the main subject of this conference will be rule of law and the event is expected to be held in South Caucasus region in autumn this year. I can not say where the conference will be held. We are carrying out discussions on it now,â€ he said. Per Sjorgen stated that, presidential elections in Azerbaijan are an important issue.
â€œWe have the same priorities on Azerbaijan: preparation process for elections, state of media and condition of imprisoned journalists caused our anxiety. Generally, we will pay a special attention to state of media in the framework of the visit. We are anxious about the existence of Article on defamation in Criminal Code. We think that, this law should be cancelled. We will pay attention to the formation and independence of court systems. There is progress on this issue and we will discuss this issue in regional conference,â€ he said. Switzerland will chair the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe from this year. Though Slovenia should chair the organization according to alphabetical order, it chairs European Union. It is difficult for Slovenia to chair two organizations. Therefore, Switzerland will chair the organization in May. But Slovenia will chair the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in May next year.