CE's Secretary General hopes Azerbaijani authorities to seriously treat PACE's recommendations

Terry Davis, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, made his comments on the Resolution "On Operation of Democratic Institutes in Azerbaijan", adopted on June 24 in Strasbourg at the PACE session, and expressed his confidence that the Azerbaijani government will seriously treat the recommendations of the Council of Europe and take the required measures.

Touching on the forthcoming presidential election in Azerbaijan, the Secretary General said that only the freedom of speech could ensure fair and free elections.

We remind you that the June 24 PACE session in Strasbourg passed the resolution "On Operation of Democratic Institutes in Azerbaijan", which voiced out serious concern with the worsening situation in the sphere of human rights in Azerbaijan. The resolution was adopted on the basis of the report presented by Rapporteurs of the PACE Monitoring Committee Andres Herkel (Estonia) and Evgenia Zhivkova (Bulgaria) on situation with democratic institutes in Azerbaijan.

Earlier, the press had published excerpts from the draft resolution. In particular, the document ran that restriction of the freedom of expression, including prosecutions and intimidations of oppositional journalists, and violations of the freedom of assemblies and associations are inadmissible in the member-countries of the Council of Europe.

The recommendations of the resolution list the urgent measures to be undertaken before the presidential election to be held on October 15.