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OSCE Office in Baku hosts workshop on establishing a National Preventive Mechanism in Azerbaijan

25 November 2009 11:21 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Viktoria Dementieva â€“ APA. The OSCE Office in Baku opened a two-day workshop today to examine the implementation of the UN Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and the establishment of a National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) for the prevention of torture and other forms of ill-treatment in places where people are deprived of liberty in Azerbaijan. APA reports that the Office organized the workshop in co-operation with the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights and Azerbaijanâ€™s Ombudsmanâ€™s Office.

"The OSCE Office in Baku believes that the successful establishment and effective operation of the Azerbaijani NPM will be key to the countryâ€™s efforts to fight torture and other forms of inhuman and degrading treatment," said Melissa Stone, the Deputy Head of the OSCE Office in Baku.

Azerbaijanâ€™s Ombudsman Elmira Suleymanova said they had offered to establish NPM for the prevention of torture and noted that such a mechanism should be fully independent.

Azerbaijanâ€™s Deputy Justice Minister, chief of the Penitentiary Service Nazim Alakbarov said positive changes had been made in this field in Azerbaijan and the international organizations also confirmed it.