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Khanlar Hajiyev: The decisions on the appeals from Azerbaijan to the European Court show that there are concrete shortcomings in the judicial system, legislation and court practice â€“ INTERVIEW

26 November 2010 12:53 (UTC +04:00)

-How is the general situation concerning the complaints sent to the European Court of Human Rights from Azerbaijan?

-2540 complaints have been sent to the European Court since April 2002, Azerbaijan ratified the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, of them 1262 have already been considered. Decisions have been passed with regard to 40 appeals, correspondences have been done on 94 complaints. As you see, the majority of the complaints are not accepted, as they do not meet the requirements of the European Convention. The situation is the same concerning other countries. Any appeal is pending, the speed of the process depends on the introduction of the appeal to the European Court and complicacy of the content. Of course, there are problems concerning the term of consideration, how can the process of consideration be accelerated etc. But this is another issue.

-How is the level of the cooperation between the European Court and Azerbaijan?

-Principally, it has been accepted that there is an uninterrupted dialogue between the European Court and national courts. This dialogue started right after Azerbaijan ratified the Convention. The then president of the European Court Luzius Wildhaber visited Azerbaijan in February, 2003 and met with national leader Heydar Aliyev. Following this, these relations developed due to the mutual visits, meetings, conferences held in Baku. President of the European Court Jean-Paul Costa visited Azerbaijan in 2007. He met with President Ilham Aliyev. The head of state noted the necessity of cooperation between Azerbaijan and the European Court. President of the European Court addressed the judges at the conference organized by Azerbaijanâ€™s Supreme Court and the special meeting. Four judges of the European Court have recently attended the conference on the 15th anniversary of Azerbaijanâ€™s Constitution in Baku. On the initiative of Justice Minister Fikrat Mammadov, the judges of the European Court met with the judges appointed by President. Therefore, I say the process of dialogue is uninterrupted. It should be admitted that Azerbaijani judges have begun to pay more attention to study the European Convention and the European judicial legislation. A special decision was passed at the plenary meeting of the Supreme Court on the application of the norms of the international law. The Constitutional Court is referring more to the practice of the European Court. The decisions on the appeals from Azerbaijan to the European Court show that there are concrete shortcomings in the judicial system, legislation and court practice. This is a big achievement for our country being under the European Courtâ€™s jurisdiction. This is important not only for appealing the international instances to protect rights and freedoms of the citizens, but also for improvement of legal system and activity of the persons involved in this process, as well as for the development of legislative and court practice. Any decision by the European Court is describing current tendencies in Europe and it has universal character. The European Court is fundamentally forming its judicial legislation that it can describe moral principles and standards widespread in Europe. The European Court understands problems of post-communist countries and implements same standards regarding all countries. It accelerates the development of the countryâ€™s legal system and improves the work of public justice. The European Court, in its turn, benefits from the rich court practices of the European countries.

- What problems the Azerbaijani citizens frequently raise before the European Court?

- The decisions show character of the complaints sent from Azerbaijan. Those are mostly concerning Article 6, Article 5 and Article 3 of the European Convention and Article 1 of Protocol 1. They are frequently raising issue of non-execution of the final court decisions. This is very characteristic for the post-soviet countries. I addressed these issues in the latest conference dedicated to 15th anniversary of the Azerbaijanâ€™s Constitution. I would like to note that I donâ€™t understand strange coverage of the above-mentioned issues by some mass media organizations. Everyone knows these problems and those are described in the European Courtâ€™s decisions. I think such conferences are special forums where the participants, particularly the judges should raise and discuss the issues of improving the process of execution of the court decisions and avoiding similar infringements. In this context, I completely agree with the ideas of my Russian colleague on the European Court Anatoly Kovler. He said duty of the European Court is not to prejudice a state, but to identify problems in the national legal system and to support their solution.

-Which amendments are expected in the Protocol #14 of the Convention and how will these amendments be realized?

-The main purpose of the Protocol #14 is to increase effectiveness of the European Courtâ€™s activity. The fact is that, since 1998, that is, after the Protocol #11 came into force, each citizen of Europe has gained the right to appeal the European Court directly. That is why, the number of appeals increase year-by-year and it became difficult for the European Court to provide hearing of these complaints. Protocol #14 which came into force since June 1, 2010, expedites court hearing of complaints. On the other hand, the European Court rivets main attention on strengthening of defense mechanism of human rights, on works important from viewpoint of Conventionâ€™s interpretation and development of court practice. Underwritten procedures have been applied for this purpose: judges hear the cases which are impossible to be adopted, committees including 3 judges hear the cases being already in practice of the European Court, chamber comprising 7 judges is engaged in investigation of hard cases. Of course, it is early to say that how these changes may quicken hearings of cases gathered for many years. To European Court, national bodies, especially judicial bodies must increase quality of works, apply the European Convention systematically, take effective steps for using of rich court of the European Court of Human Rightsâ€™ practice.