PACE co-rapporteurs urge Azeri authorities to reform the judiciary

Following their visit to Azerbaijan, the co-rapporteurs of the Monitoring Committee of the PACE (Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe) have urged the Azerbaijani authorities to reform the country’s judicial system, the NGO legislation, and to free all political prisoners.

The visit to Baku of Stefan Schennach and Cezar Florin Preda, the co-rapporteurs of the PACE’s Monitoring Committee on Azerbaijan, took place on January 12-14. Their main aim was to assess the fulfilment of the country's commitments to the Council of Europe.

Today, the co-rapporteurs have released their statement on the visit to Azerbaijan, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

"It is imperative to give a new impetus to the reform process and to continue the dialogue with the authorities, in particular, in such areas as the judicial system, media freedom, human rights, and NGO legislation," says the statement of the co-rapporteurs.

Referring to the liberation of rights defenders, political activists and journalists in 2016, the co-rapporteurs expressed hope that "this positive process will continue throughout 2017."

"We’ve not just considered particular cases of the persons kept in jail during our visit; our discussions focused on the reform of the judiciary as a whole. It is important to liquidate the root reasons of the problem and strengthen the independence of the judiciary,” says the statement posted on the PACE’s website.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.