The work and reforms that are underway in Azerbaijan's justice system, existing problems in the enforcement of court decisions and measures being taken in this area, innovations introduced in the penitentiary system, and digitalization projects are among the key issues of public interest today. The rehabilitation and reintegration of inmates in correctional facilities, the organization of vocational education, as well as innovations introduced in the probation system are also in focus.
Azerbaijan's Minister of Justice Farid Ahmadov addressed these issues in an interview with Report and ITV. The minister spoke about the work underway in the field of justice and future plans.
ITV: One of the most important areas of the activity of the Ministry of Justice is the enforcement of court decisions. Various views on this issue are periodically voiced in society and on social media. How would you assess the current situation in this area? What achievements have been made and what has been done over the past period?
- The execution of enforcement documents, including court decisions, is one of the key areas of the Ministry of Justice's activity. This is by no accident, as the effective implementation of court decisions is essential both to protecting the rights of our citizens and businesses and to strengthening confidence in the judiciary as a whole. Therefore, ensuring the proper execution of court decisions and other legal acts remains under constant attention.
As a result of measures implemented in recent years, our enforcement rate reached 60% by the end of 2025. This is the highest figure recorded over the past five years. According to the results for the first six months of the current year, the enforcement rate stood at around 62%. We expect this figure to range between around 62% and 65% by the end of the year.
Naturally, we would like our enforcement rate to reach 100%. Unfortunately, it is impossible to achieve such figures anywhere in the world for various reasons. These may be related to debtors' financial circumstances, their ability to pay and other resource-related factors. However, our goal is to continuously increase the enforcement rate.
Report: As you have noted, there are certain difficulties in enforcing court decisions and other enforcement documents. What are the main obstacles, and what steps are being taken to address them? How effective is the institution of private enforcement officers in tackling these problems?
– As I have noted, bringing the enforcement rate to 100% would be an ideal target for us. However, this is not possible due to various objective and subjective factors. Among the subjective factors, I acknowledge that some cases may stem from shortcomings in the competence of enforcement officers. There are also instances when officials act outside the framework established by law, and we take the strictest measures in response.
Another factor concerns the financial situation of debtors in cases involving monetary claims. Sometimes, when a claim is referred for enforcement, no assets belonging to the debtor can be identified though the enforcement officer takes all the necessary steps. In other words, recovery becomes impossible because the debtor has neither an official income nor any movable or immovable property registered in their name.
Even in such cases, however, we take all necessary measures and ensure that, if the debtor acquires assets in the future, the claim can be enforced against them. Overall, these circumstances can create certain obstacles to the recovery of monetary claims and, consequently, to the enforcement of court decisions.
There are also objective factors behind the difficulties we face. The main one is the sharp increase in the number of cases referred for enforcement in recent years. For comparison, between 2020 and 2023, the number of enforcement documents received each year stood at 307,000–309,000. By the end of 2024, that figure had risen by around 30% to 387,000. It reached 436,000 at the end of 2025, and we expect the number of cases received this year to exceed 500,000. Naturally, this has placed a significant extra burden on the Enforcement Service.
On the one hand, this can be viewed as a sign of growing public confidence in the judiciary, as well as increased economic activity and civil turnover in the country. This is a positive development. On the other hand, however, the Enforcement Service has become heavily overloaded. This has happened while the number of enforcement officers has remained unchanged. In other words, we are facing a sharp rise in the number of cases alongside a static number of officials responsible for handling them.
Naturally, despite this, we have been able to improve our enforcement performance by strengthening enforcement discipline and introducing modern digital tools in this area. However, taking into account the problems I have mentioned, we believe that they can only be resolved through fundamental, comprehensive institutional reforms, and we have put forward a number of initiatives in this direction.
One of these initiatives concerned the establishment and implementation of the institution of private enforcement officers. As you know, the Law "On Private Enforcement Officers" was adopted in 2025, and the implementation of this institution is envisaged for 2026. The main philosophy behind this law is that the state, by transferring part of the burden related to the execution of enforcement documents to the market, becomes an institution that exercises oversight and regulation in these relations.
At the initial stage, the activities of private enforcement officers will apply to enforcement documents falling into a number of categories. These are mainly cases involving monetary claims. There are two reasons for this. Naturally, there had to be appropriate incentive mechanisms to ensure the effective organization of the activities of private enforcement officers, and this mechanism was linked to the profitability of the institution. Therefore, at the initial stage, we consider it more appropriate to transfer to them the enforcement cases arising from monetary claims.
There is another reason for this. If we look at our enforcement portfolio, there are currently approximately 1.09 million enforcement documents. More than 60% of these are cases involving monetary claims. This figure may create the impression that, in terms of the number of entities involved, there are more than 600,000 claimants with monetary claims. This is absolutely not the case. More than 520,000 of the monetary claims involve just 40 entities. In other words, just 40 legal entities act as claimants in 520,000 enforcement proceedings. These are mainly banks, non-bank credit organizations (NBCOs), entities engaged in the sale of household appliances, and other legal entities.
Here, we mainly see cases where banks and NBCOs provide unsecured loans and subsequently face difficulties in recovering those loans. In such cases, they apply to the court. Once a court decision is issued, the relevant enforcement document enters our enforcement proceedings, and as a result, our workload increases sharply.
We are by no means opposed to lending in the country. It is one of the factors that promotes economic activity. However, we are opposed to a state institution being burdened as a result of a business entity failing to properly manage its risks. The purpose and logic of the law are precisely that if a debt arises because an entity has failed to properly manage its own risk, that entity itself should bear the costs associated with it.
The private enforcement mechanism will ensure precisely this. Private enforcement officers will have the same powers as state enforcement officers. They will also be able to fully carry out enforcement actions on incoming claims, just as state enforcement officers do. The only difference will be that they will do so for a fee. Thus, by transferring a large part of this portfolio to the private sector, the state's burden in this area will be significantly reduced.
For your information, we have already started the certification process for private enforcement officers. They have completed the written stage, which is the first stage of the competition. After the interview stage, they will undergo training and will then be able to begin working fully as private enforcement officers.
On the other hand, another objective problem we face concerns the number of enforcement officers. Again, I would like to remind you of the number of cases currently under enforcement. If we divide the nearly 1.09 million cases under enforcement by the number of enforcement officers, each enforcement officer across the country handles an average of 3,500–4,000 enforcement cases per year. In the districts, this figure is 10,000.
This is mainly because people who join the justice service do not want to work as enforcement officers in the regions. Although they express a desire to work in Baku when joining the justice authorities, they do not want to go to the regions. As a result, our enforcement officer resources in the regions have begun to decline sharply.
To address this issue, we proposed amendments to the legislation. By amending the law on state enforcement officers, we succeeded in removing the requirement for university degree in law for enforcement officers in general. This was, of course, a decision reached following extensive discussions. The main question was what competencies are actually required of a state enforcement officer. We concluded that a state enforcement officer can in fact perform this work without completing a full four-year law degree, provided they undergo the necessary training.
We have already begun the selection process for enforcement officers who do not have university degree in law. This year, nearly 600 candidates applied, and around 300 of them passed the first stage and were admitted to the interview stage. After providing them with training, we will assign them to vacancies in the regions. By carrying out these institutional reforms, we will be able to address both the problem related to our workload and the challenges associated with a shortage of resources.
ITV: Penitentiary institutions are another issue that is always in the public spotlight. Let's start with the fact that this is not merely a correctional facility, but also an institution for rehabilitation. And one particularly important issue here is the organization of the rehabilitation process for inmates. What measures are being taken in penitentiary institutions to prevent people released from prison from committing crimes again? In your view, what more needs to be done in this area?
- You are absolutely right. Although they are called correctional facilities, naturally, we should approach them first and foremost from the perspective of rehabilitation. When we talk about rehabilitation, people in society primarily associate it with correctional facilities in relation to offenders. However, I view the rehabilitation process not in the narrow legal sense, but in a broader sense-as a process that should take place throughout society as a whole.
This is because before a person enters a correctional facility, they have already exhibited certain behavior while at liberty. Since this is usually the behavior of a person who has not been rehabilitated, that person ends up in a correctional facility. We should view the rehabilitation of any citizen as a responsibility of society as a whole. From this perspective, the rehabilitation process taking place in correctional facilities should actually be regarded as a process of re-rehabilitation.
In other words, as I have mentioned, because a person was not rehabilitated while at liberty, they commit an offense and enter a correctional facility, where we then begin the process of rehabilitating them again under conditions of isolation.
The measures we apply in correctional facilities mainly consist of educational and rehabilitation work, involving inmates in socially useful labor, education and vocational training. Outside prison, too, educational development is linked to the family institution, as well as preschool and school education.
Involving a person in work and engaging them in socially useful labor contributes to their development as an individual and as a citizen. From this perspective, we should view the rehabilitation process in a broader sense, as a responsibility of society as a whole. When the institutions I have mentioned do not function effectively, a person may engage in deviant behavior (actions that go against laws, rules and generally accepted standards of conduct in society - ed.), develop a criminal mindset, violate the law and end up in a correctional facility.
The level of crime in Azerbaijan is very low. We can see this even when comparing it with some of the most developed Western countries. This also means that the institutions I have mentioned are sufficiently effective, and, naturally, the effective work of law enforcement agencies in this process is also undeniable.
However, in all societies and states, there are people who engage in criminal behavior, and Azerbaijan is no exception in this regard. When they commit an offense, they enter a correctional facility, and their rehabilitation process then begins under conditions of isolation. We organize this process by applying the measures I have listed, with the aim of rehabilitating them and preventing them from committing further offenses in the future.
I believe that the most important of these measures is education, particularly vocational education based on competencies and skills, as a means of organizing this rehabilitation process. Why do I place particular emphasis on these areas? Because if we look at people who commit crimes in different countries around the world, including Azerbaijan, we see that some of them are employable but unemployed. The reason they are not employed is not related to a lack of jobs in the labor market. Rather, they simply do not have the competencies and skills required for the jobs available in the labor market.
When we look at the statistics on reoffending , we also see that a significant proportion of those involved are unemployed. For this reason, we attach particular importance to developing these competencies and skills in correctional facilities and ensuring that these individuals find employment after being released from prison.
As you know, there is a Decree of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan dated June 25, 2025, approving the "Action Plan for 2025–2030 on Improving the Quality of Vocational Education in Correctional Facilities and Upgrading Existing Infrastructure." The decree sets out a number of tasks related to the organization of vocational education, and as part of their implementation, we have launched a new project called the "N.Ə.F.Ə.S." project.
Within the framework of this project, we have launched a number of vocational training programs based on public-private partnerships. We have begun providing vocational training in correctional facilities located both in the regions and in Baku in occupations that are in demand in the labor market. We conducted market research in this regard and, having identified the occupations most in demand, engaged private partners with a high level of expertise in these fields.
Thus, vocational training has already begun in correctional facilities in such areas as electrical installation, electric and gas welding, the repair of hybrid and electric vehicles, as well as a number of other fields.
At the initial stage, it is planned to provide certified vocational training to 1,100 inmates annually. Not only private partners but also state-owned legal entities are involved in this process. They are also helping to establish the necessary infrastructure in correctional facilities and organize the training.
Report: Due to certain attitudes in society, some employers are cautious about hiring people who have been convicted of a crime. And this creates obstacles to their employment. How do you think this problem can be addressed?
- As the Ministry of Justice, we also had the stereotype that employers are cautious about hiring people who are serving or have served prison sentences. However, we conducted a survey among 500 employers and found that this is not necessarily the case. In fact, we came to the conclusion that this stereotype is, to a certain extent, unfounded.
Naturally, this may vary depending on the crime committed by the individual and the position they wish to take up. For example, employers tend to be more tolerant and less cautious when it comes to offenses committed through negligence. However, when it comes to individuals who have committed more serious crimes, employers are naturally more cautious in their approach.
Overall, I agree that such a stereotype and stigma exist. To help overcome them, we have been able to involve private-sector partners in correctional facilities. By having employers participate in training and practical work alongside inmates and get to know them more closely, we believe we can help eliminate these reservations, stereotypes and stigmas among employers. We already have some positive experience in this regard.
ITV: Let's admit that the rehabilitation of a person convicted and serving a sentence in a penitentiary institution also depends on the conditions within that institution, namely its infrastructure. Are you satisfied with the current state of the infrastructure, and is it sufficient to achieve the goals you have set? What work is planned in this area, and what steps are expected to be taken?
- As you know, a number of new correctional facilities have been built to date on the instructions of the President, and this process is continuing. I fully agree with you that in order to address the issues I have listed, and even to establish a sound vocational education infrastructure, the correctional infrastructure generally needs to be in good condition. A number of measures are currently being implemented in this area as well. New correctional facilities are already being built on the instructions of the President. These projects are aimed at upgrading the existing infrastructure.
We have already begun construction of a new correctional facility in Garadagh designed to accommodate 2,000 inmates. At the same time, there are plans to build a new correctional facility in Umbaki on a 35-hectare site, designed to accommodate 6,000–7,000 inmates. In addition, a correctional facility is planned to be built in Ganja. Thus, with the aim of renewing the existing infrastructure, we have set a target of commissioning new correctional facilities designed to accommodate approximately 11,000 inmates in total. These projects are scheduled to be completed by 2030.
These correctional facilities will fully meet modern standards. They are planned to include new vocational education infrastructure, as well as digital tools for monitoring inmates, including facial recognition systems and other technological solutions. This, in turn, will make an important contribution to the rehabilitation process.
At the same time, we have begun implementing extensive digital projects aimed at improving the infrastructure of correctional facilities. We believe these projects will help further optimize and increase the transparency of the overall management of correctional facilities.
In particular, we are planning to introduce digital solutions aimed at reducing physical contact with citizens. We have already begun piloting these digital solutions. One of them is the visitors" online information system. Through this system, the processes of registering for visiting inmates and sending parcels to inmates have been fully digitized. We use these digital solutions as tools for monitoring these processes.
In addition, a video visitation platform for inmates has been developed and put into operation.
At the same time, a new telemedicine platform has been established to improve the quality of medical services, enabling inmates to receive remote medical examinations. It was developed both to ensure more efficient management of resources and to provide higher-quality and faster medical services.
We are currently implementing these digital solutions in four correctional facilities, and we plan to extend them to cover the entire infrastructure of the Penitentiary Service. By implementing these solutions, we will be able to make processes throughout the Penitentiary Service more streamlined and efficient.
Report: It would be interesting for us to hear your views on the situation in the area of enforcement of non-custodial sentences. In this context, has probation supervision delivered the expected results both in terms of public safety and the rehabilitation of convicted persons?
- As you know, in 2017, the President signed an Order "On improving activities in the penitentiary field, humanization of the penal policy, and expanding the application of alternative sentences and procedural coercive measures not involving isolation from society." It was precisely this Order that instructed the establishment of the Probation Service. The Service has been operating since that year.
Probation has two main objectives. These are exercising probation supervision over persons whose liberty has been restricted, as well as ensuring their social adaptation and rehabilitation. Social adaptation and the rehabilitation of convicted persons are among our priority areas. This is because people under probation supervision may face a higher risk of committing offenses, and we believe this is a particularly sensitive period for them. By ensuring their social rehabilitation at this stage, we can help them become law-abiding citizens.
As a result of the measures implemented, we are already observing a sharp decline in the number of people who have violated probation conditions. While this figure stood at 842 at the end of 2023, it had fallen ninefold to 93 by the end of 2025. At the same time, we are observing an approximately 15% decline in cases of repeat offenses among people under probation supervision.
Overall, with the aim of carrying out more fundamental reforms in the probation sector, we have prepared a concept covering 2027–2031 on expanding and improving probation activities. The draft concept is currently undergoing the coordination process within the government, and I believe that with its implementation, we will be able to achieve the targets I have outlined for the Probation Service.
ITV: The role of forensic examination in the administration of justice is undeniable. I often hear even from people I know, "Let's wait for the forensic expert report and see what happens." This is an attitude that exists in society. What are the outstanding issues in the field of forensic examination, and what is being done in this area?
The importance of forensic examination and an expert opinion for a court decision is significant. Nevertheless, ultimately, an expert opinion serves as one of the pieces of evidence that the court evaluates. In other words, the court assesses all the evidence, including the expert opinion, as a whole before reaching its final conclusion.
Given the importance of the forensic examination system, the Forensic Examination Council of the Republic of Azerbaijan was established by the President in 2024 to ensure more effective and centralized coordination of activities in this field. The Council was also assigned a number of tasks, including the complete digitalization of forensic examination activities and coordination among all relevant institutions.
In this regard, based on proposals from the Council, a Decree was signed in 2025 on the establishment of the "Forensic Examination" information system. The information system is now fully ready for use. Only the completion of certain regulatory arrangements remains pending. Once this process is finalized, the system will be fully operational.
The system will cover not only forensic examinations conducted by the Ministry of Justice, but also non-medical and medical forensic examinations carried out by other institutions. Through this system, it will be possible to monitor the examination process in real time, meaning that the parties to a case will be able to obtain information about the status of the examination. Overall, this information system will become a highly important database for the field of forensic examination.
In addition, as a result of the Council's activities, the "Concept for the Development of the Forensic Examination Sector in the Republic of Azerbaijan for 2026–2030" was prepared. The document was approved by a relevant order of the President, and during the period covered by the Concept, a number of measures are envisaged to develop both the institutional and regulatory framework, as well as the forensic examination infrastructure as a whole.
Report: As you know, new private forensic experts will begin operating in the country. Will these experts contribute to the development of the forensic examination sector, and what will this contribution consist of?
- In fact, we can apply measures similar to those we have taken in the enforcement sector to the forensic examination sector as well. Because, just as in the enforcement sector, we are also seeing a sharp increase in the number of cases entering the forensic examination system. Over the past four years, the number of cases received for examination has increased by nearly 45%. This has resulted in a significant increase in the state's workload in this area. The increase in the number of cases can affect both the quality of expert opinions and their timely submission.
Overall, as a logical continuation of the previous question, this could also have a negative impact, in a sense, on the administration of justice. In order to optimize the workload in this area, we have launched the certification process for the establishment of a private forensic examination system and the operation of private forensic experts. This process is currently ongoing. After completing their training, they will undergo the selection process and will then be able to begin working as private forensic experts.
With the exception of areas of forensic examination that are legally assigned to the exclusive authority of the state, private experts, alongside state experts, will be able to provide opinions in all other areas of forensic examination. Thus, by reducing the state"s workload in this area, we will be able to make a positive contribution to the administration of justice.
ITV: You have provided information about a number of digital projects implemented by the Ministry of Justice. In what other areas of justice activities are digitalization measures being carried out? What innovations can be expected to expand the scope of digital justice services as a whole? In general, digitalization and artificial intelligence are requirements of the times. Is the Ministry of Justice keeping pace with these requirements?
- As you know, digital projects are being implemented across all government institutions in their respective areas of activity. The Ministry of Justice views digitalization not as an end in itself, but as a tool for achieving other objectives. I am sure that other institutions take the same approach to this issue.
To date, we have witnessed the digitalization of public services in various areas. The Ministry of Justice is no exception in this regard. However, the further deepening of this process and giving new impetus to digitalization came with the adoption of two important documents in 2026.
One was the Presidential Decree on the establishment of the Digital Development Council, headed by First Vice-President Mehriban Aliyeva, and the other was the Action Plan for 2026–2028 on accelerating digital development in the Republic of Azerbaijan. Thanks to these important documents, the digitalization process has been further deepened, and new targets have been set in this area.
These targets should directly serve the objectives of generating additional value for the economy, improving the efficiency of governance, and making data-driven decisions. I believe that one of the most important objectives of digitalization should be to contribute to ensuring citizen satisfaction. The digital projects implemented by the Ministry of Justice to date, as well as those that will be implemented going forward, serve precisely these objectives.
The history of digitalization at the Ministry of Justice spans 15 years. It began with the digitalization of notarial services and the introduction of e-notary services. However, we have now begun implementing new digital projects in virtually all areas of our activities.
In the enforcement sector, the electronic enforcement information system has been revamped, and the "Mobile Enforcement" application has been launched on the basis of this information system. The application already has more than 30,000 active users. At the same time, we have launched an electronic auction information system for enforcement purposes. The electronic auction information system is one of the important information systems aimed at making the auction process more transparent and accessible overall.
In addition, we are authorized to exercise administrative oversight over the activities of municipalities, and within the framework of this authority, we have established a revenue and expenditure portal for municipalities.
At the same time, we provide a wide range of services in the notary sector, particularly through the Mobile Notary application. The application currently has 1.8 million active users. In line with the Action Plan for 2026–2028 on accelerating digital development in the Republic of Azerbaijan, the services available through the "Mobile Notary" application are planned to be transferred to the "mygov" platform, and we are currently carrying out this process. Thirteen services available through the "Mobile Notary" application are already accessible via "mygov".
In addition, we have taken a number of steps toward the digitalization of civil status records, including the provision through "mygov" of certificates related to birth, marriage, death, civil status and family composition.
I believe that one of the most important areas of our activity is data cleansing, because the Ministry of Justice's databases, particularly the State Population Register, serve as a primary source of information for many government institutions. Within the framework of exchanging primary-source data, we have established integration with 42 government institutions. The services provided by these government institutions directly depend on the accuracy and integrity of this primary-source data. We have currently achieved a 95% level of data accuracy for information based on PIN codes.
At the same time, we are introducing artificial intelligence-based solutions, primarily in the notary sector. We have launched a new AI-powered tool for property valuation, enabling citizens to determine the value of a property in advance when they visit notaries for a sale or purchase transaction.
As I have noted, we are already implementing a number of projects. We will further continue our work in this area. I would particularly like to emphasize that all our digital projects will serve the three objectives set out in the two important documents I mentioned (the Presidential Decree on certain measures to improve activities in the areas of digitalization, e-government, artificial intelligence and innovation in the Republic of Azerbaijan, and the Presidential Order approving the "Action Plan for 2026–2028 on accelerating digital development in the Republic of Azerbaijan" - ed).
