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Council of Europe to present new brochure in Baku

29 October 2009 01:32 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. The public presentation of the Council of Europe brochure on the â€œRecommendation CM/Rec(2008) 14 of the Committee of Ministers to member states on the legal status of non-governmental organisations in Europeâ€ took place on 28 October in the Council of Europe Office in Baku. Special Representative of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe Veronika Kotek said NGOs didnâ€™t meet enough understandings in the society, but despite that they made great contribution to the establishing democracy in the country. He said the recommendations were prepared after the learning of legal basis of the NGOs in the member countries in an opinion poll conducted by the Council of Europe in 2003. The recommendations describe basic principles and objectives, formation and membership, legal personality, management and other aspects of the non-governmental organizations.
Chairman of the Council of State Support to NGOs Azay Guliyev said the Council of Europe examined the NGO law in Azerbaijan adopted in 2000. â€œThe law meets the CoE standards, but it s natural to make recommendations taking the reality of development in the country into consideration. The recommendations and their coordination with the Azerbaijani legislation will be learnedâ€. He said Azerbaijan passed important decisions about NGOâ€™s in the past two years and the President signed a document about support to NGOâ€™s. He said the government allocated nearly 4 million dollars for NGOs. â€œThe non-governmental organizations must better form their activity and realize their responsibility before the societyâ€. Azay Guliyev mentioned problems of NGO sector and urged to increase their transparency. â€œThe European Commission allocated 3 million 250 thousand euro to 12 non-governmental organizations in a year. Our Council has two million AZN for total budget and we share it between 120 NGOs and secure the transparency. It would be better if other funding organizations also provide transparencyâ€. Azay Guliyev said one of the problems was that there was no general report on NGOs in the country so far.

The Office told APA the publication is a joint co-operation between the International Centre for Not-for-Profit Law and the Council of Europe. The translation was made possible through support provided by U.S. Agency for International Development, under the terms of Award between USAID and Counterpart International. The Civil Society Project is a United States Agency for International Development initiative, implemented by Counterpart International in partnership with International Center for Not-for-Profit Law. The goal of USAIDâ€™s Civil Society Project is to assist the citizens of Azerbaijan and the Government of Azerbaijan to institutionalise pluralistic, representative approaches to shaping and implementing economic and social reform.

The presentation will include remarks by the Chairman of the Council of State Support to NGOs Azay Guliyev, the Special Representative of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe Veronika Kotek, and Chief of Party of Civil Society Project led by Counterpart Michael Kunz.