Court orders Baku Mayoralty to publish city development plan

The executive power of Baku shall give to the public a general work plan of the Azerbaijani capital's development, on the basis of which the construction works are currently conducted in the city. This decision was adopted on August 1 by the Baku Administrative and Economic Court.

According to the message of the Media Rights Institute (MRI), received by the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, in accordance with the Law "On receiving information", the general work plan of Baku's development is the information open to the public. However, already during 10 years this document has been kept secret from the media.

In December 2010, Aitekin Imranova, the head of the Centre for Democracy and Human Rights (CDHR), sent a request to the Baku Mayoralty under the MRI initiative "Developing the Government Accountability through Litigation". She asked for a copy of the general work plan and other supporting documents. However, the Mayoralty has ignored the request. Therefore, with the help of the IPM a lawsuit on failure of the Mayoralty to act was filed.

The lawsuit was considered in the court chaired by Judge Takhira Asadova. The court has ruled that the refusal was unlawful and ordered the Mayoralty to give an official reply to the request.

Aitekin Imranova, the representative of the plaintiff and the head of the CDHR, explained that the appeal was lodged to the court in connection with "the mass spontaneous demolition of apartment and administrative buildings in Baku, accompanied by massive violation of property rights". "The authorities refer to a general work plan of Baku's development, which is kept secret from the public," said Aitekin Imranova.

According to her, the public should be informed of the general work plan, since the citizens wonder what street are subject to demolition, where measures on improvement will be taken and what steps are being done to protect the environment.