The Decree "On Deepening of the Reforms in the Judicial-Legal System", signed by the President Ilham Aliyev on April 3, serves to the development of the judicial system, the efficiency and accessibility of justice and the citizen's satisfaction.
Duties arising from the Decree of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan were immediately discussed at the Board of the Ministry of Justice and a special action plan was adopted and implementation of this important document was started.
On April 8, the Ministry of Justice held a public debate on realization of the tasks set forth in the Decree, which is a "roadmap" for the future development of the justice and judicial system and which is met with great interest and sympathy by the public.
At the event, held with the participation of the heads of the Ministry and the Press Council, members of the Public Committee at the Minister of Justice, and other civil society representatives, as well as media representatives, there was made useful exchange of ideas on the essence of the Law “About Mediation” adopted newly with relate to the importance of the Decree in holding reforms in the judicial-legal system and the deepening of these reforms, legislative and institutional innovations, promotion of alternative mechanisms, appliance of mediation process.
The heads of the relevant structures of the Ministry of Justice made speeches and informed about the measures held in the last years in line with the instructions of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Mr. Ilham Aliyev on improving the efficiency of justice judgement, including the works carried out on improvement of the legislation, simplification of access to courts, modernization of the infrastructure, improvement of the execution of court decisions, appliance of “Electron court” and "Electron execution" information systems, humanization of punishment policy and underlined that, the Decree of the Head of State stipulated the systematic continuation of reforms in this field in the new stage in accordance with modern challenges.
The Press Council and civil society representatives noted that the Decree signed by the President of the country was a manifestation of the exceptional importance given to the judiciary, adding that this important document serves to
ensure the protection of citizens' rights in a more secure manner and to increase public confidence in the administration of justice.
It was noted that, timely and honest execution of the tasks and recommendations specified by the Decree, which envisages the realization of complex legislative, institutional and practical measures in the judicial-legal system, will make conditions for strengthening of independence of judicial power, prevention of external interference in the courts, prevention of non-procedural relations, procrastination and other inadmissible cases, provision of fairness and timely execution of the court decisions, increase of transparency, decrease of the judges' workload, increase of quality of consideration of the cases, and rendering of quick, easy and alternative services to the population.
At the same time, the importance of the new Law “About Mediation” adopted with regard to the use of mediation in our country, which is one of the ways of extrajudicial solution of disputes, was mentioned, the role of this institution in settlement of disputes arising from civil and economic, family, labor and administrative law relations with mutual agreement of the parties was noted, and it was emphasized that, it was aimed at reducing the level of conflict between the parties and ensuring the settlement of the dispute that would satisfy them. It was noted that, proper and efficient use of mediation would also lead to a significant reduction of the workload in the courts.
There were made useful discussions on the President's Decree and some aspects of the Law “About Mediation” and a number of proposals were sounded at the event.
