Head of CoE Office in Azerbaijan: Council of Europe considers Azerbaijan as a very important member of the organization
20 May 2011 [15:20] - TODAY.AZ
Interview with Head of the Council of Europe Office in Azerbaijan Ambassador Constantin Yerocostopoulos.
How do you estimate the activity of Azerbaijan in Council of Europe?
The Council of Europe considers the Republic of Azerbaijan as a very
important member of the Organization. Since its accession 10 years ago
Azerbaijan became a full contracting party to 55 CoE Conventions and a
member to 8 Partial Agreements. Furthermore the authorities of the
Republic have been active in organizing Conferences of Specialized
Ministers of the Council of Europe like the 7th Conference of Ministers
of Equality between Men and Women which took place in Baku on May 24-25
last year.
Also I would like to mention the role that Azerbaijan has assigned to
itself as a major actor in the CoE’s growing work on intercultural
dialogue and its religious dimension. In this connection I would like to
recall that Azerbaijan hosted on April 7 and 8 the World Forum on
Intercultural Dialogue.
What kind of projects (in what spheres) does Council of Europe recently implement in Azerbaijan?
The Council of Europe has always made clear its willingness to
co-operate with the authorities in order to help them bring both the
legislation and the administrative and judicial practices in protecting
human rights and fundamental freedoms to the level expected from a
member State of the organization. We are in close contact with the
competent authorities in exploring the fields where new projects can be
elaborated.
PACE special reporter on political prisoners Mr. Christophe Strässer
since his appointment could not visit Azerbaijan to prepare a report.
What can you say about it?
This is an issue that should be settled between the Parliamentary Assembly and the Azerbaijani authorities.
How do you estimate the implementation of European Court of Human Rights decisions by Azerbaijan?
Azerbaijan is a party to the European Convention of Human Rights. As
such it undertook the obligation to execute the judgments of the
European Court of Human Rights which are binding for the member States.
The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe is monitoring the
execution of the judgments and it will examine again the implementation
by the Azerbaijani authorities of the rulings of the Court.
Are any CE officials planning to visit Azerbaijan in near future?
There is always the possibility for organizing high level visits, but for the time being I can not say anything concrete.
/APA/
Views: 1760
Connect with us. Get latest news and updates.