On June 26, the Academy of Justice of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Azerbaijan held a public debate with the representatives of the scientific organizations on the issues coming from the Decree of the President Ilham Aliyev “On deepening of the reforms in the judicial-legal system”.
Acting rector of the Academy of Justice Elchin Khalafov stated that, the events dedicated to the public debates with relate to the Decree were held not only in Baku city, as well as in the different regions of the country. He noted that, there were adopted important decisions, made systematic measures in order to increase the efficiency of justice and to enlarge the appeal opportunities and accessibility to the courts. The Decree signed by the President serves for improvement of the social welfare of the country’s population and for making transparent the judicial-legal bodies. The economic and legal reforms made by the head of state serve to the development of our country. The Decree on April 3, 2019, being a next demonstration of the exclusive importance of the head of state given to the judicial power, is an important part of the judicial-legal reforms.
The chief of the Organization and Supervision General Department of the Ministry of Justice, a member of the Judges Election Committee Elchin Gasimov, speaking with a report on the theme “The Decree “On deepening of the reforms in the judicial-legal system” of the Azerbaijan President “as a road map” of justice reforms”, noted that, this Decree defining the strategic priorities of future development of the judicial system has a program character being a “road map” with exclusive importance. He pointed out that, the Decree set important tasks for the solution of such problems as the development of entrepreneurship, which is crucial for economic growth, further expanded access to the court, preventing interference in the judicial proceedings, increasing the effectiveness of the proceedings and eliminating procrastination, reducing judges' workloads.
The chief of the department of the ministry stressed that, a special working group consisting of the officials of the Ministry of Justice, the Judicial-Legal Council, the Supreme Court and the Prosecutor General's Office had been formed and analyses were made on the forthcoming problems, international
experience was learned, joint proposals on complex legislative, institutional and practical measures were prepared, and other measures were taken. As a result of amendments to the legislation on decriminalization on execution of the Presidential Order on February 10, 2017 on the humanization of the penal policy, about 5,000 prisoners were fully exempted from punishment or the punishment was mitigated, and the number of detainees in the detention facilities decreased by 25 percent.
The chief of the Department of Human Rights and Public Relations of the Ministry of Justice Aynur Sabitova stated that, the Ministry of Justice held large enlightenment measures by presence of civil society and Mass Media representatives on improvement of judicial activity, application of “Electron court” information system, development of entrepreneurship and other issues coming from execution of the Decree. During the last 3 months there were held 8 public debates, 3 round tables, 2 public presentations and 1 briefing on main directions of the judicial-legal reforms in the Ministry of Justice, as well as in Ganja and Lankaran, including Lankaran State University jointly with the World bank, American Chamber of Commerce, Azerbaijan Confederation of Entrepreneurs and Bar Association. The events were attended by the leadership and officials of the ministry, leading persons of the Presidential Administration, Judicial-Legal Council, Press Council, deputies of the Milli Mejlis, judges, public prosecutors, advocates and other lawyers, public figures, members of the Public Committee at the minister of justice, other representatives of civil society, representatives of international organizations and diplomatic corps, Mass Media leaders, scientists, entrepreneurs, youth and students. The Minister of Justice, chairman of the Judicial-Legal Council Fikrat Mammadov gave detailed information to the public about the works realized during the last three months on execution of the Decree in his interview with AZERTAJ.
The professor of Baku State University Khayyam Ismayilov and other lecturers spoke about judicial-legal reforms made in Azerbaijan. They noted that, the laws adopted by the legislative initiative of the President Ilham Aliyev will play a great role in provision of more effective activity of the judicial system of our country.
