Azerbaijan's parliament adopts annual report of Ombudsman

Trend:

Azerbaijan's Human Rights Commissioner (Ombudsman) Elmira Suleymanova presented an annual report for 2017 to the country's parliament on April 24.

The report covered several issues. Particularly, it was noted that a number of prisoners appealed to the Ombudsman with a request to assist them with being transferred to Azerbaijan. Requests were submitted to the relevant structures and investigations were carried out based on these appeals.

Overall, last year, 53 arrested and imprisoned Azerbaijani citizens were transferred from foreign countries to the country, while 81 arrested persons were transferred to foreign countries.

There were also appeals related to the housing and communal services. There were cases when housing cooperatives introduced utility standards, which contradict the requirements of the Tariff Council, terms of the agreement signed with residents were not observed and so on.

The Ombudsman's office considered it expedient to carry out joint monitoring of housing cooperatives by the Ministries of Economy and Taxes, the Anti-Corruption Department under Azerbaijan's Prosecutor General, and take measures under the law to prevent these violations.

The report further reads that except the cases defined in the legislation, it is not allowed to overwatch anyone without his/ her consent, take video or shoot photos, make voice recordings, and use information technology to disseminate information about personal life, religious and ethnic identity.

The Ombudsman noted the necessity of legal regulation on use of information technologies and social networks to prevent unlawful interference in private life of citizens, ensure reliable protection of their honor and dignity and prevention of violations.

The report was put to the vote and adopted.