On July 29, the Ministry of Justice held a board meeting in a video conference format dedicated to the discussion of the works done this year and forthcoming tasks.
The Minister of Justice Fikrat Mammadov spoke about the progressive reforms carried out under the leadership of the President Ilham Aliyev to ensure the sustainable and stable development of our country, the decisive measures taken against the global pandemic COVID-19. He said that, our people demonstrate social solidarity in the fight against this scourge and appreciate the caring and sensitive attitude of the President and First Vice President of Azerbaijan Mehriban Aliyeva to the protection of human health and safety.
It was noted at the meeting that the next Armenian military provocation in the direction of Tovuz on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border was repulsed by our army with selflessness and heroism, and the memory of our martyred servicemen was commemorated with a minute of silence. It was noted that, the appeals of tens of thousands of young people demonstrating high patriotism to serve voluntarily in the army by replying to the call of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief are a clear demonstration of the close mobilization of our people around the President.
It was noted that, in order to modernize the work of justice, the organization of activities in a special quarantine regime, the necessary preventive works were carried out this year, the relevant regulations were adopted and implemented.
During this period, the ministry prepared 1,210 draft standard legal acts in the field of legislation, and about 1,160 acts were subject to legal examination. About 2,000 documents were included in the electronic databases of national legislation (www.e-qanun.az and www.huquqiaktlar.gov.az), which are constantly open to the population and are constantly updated, and more than 1.34 million visits were made to these electronic resources.
Legal awareness of the population, especially notification of people on provision of access to justice in the event of a pandemic was enlarged, the opportunities and interactivity of the ministry's website and social network pages were increased and a press conference and public presentations were held.
The President's instructions to take care of citizens' appeals with care and sensitivity were taken into account, the rules of video reception with the application of modern ICT were determined, more than 5,300 citizens were received in the ministry, regions and via video format and necessary measures were taken on the raised issues.
In the first half of the year, about 1.8 million notarial acts were registered, as well as more than 133,000 operations related to the state registration of civil status acts were carried out. About 3.5 million manats were transferred to the state budget for these operations, and up to 16 million manats for real estate contracts.
In order to increase citizen satisfaction, the ministry has provided more than 30 e-services without interruption, and the number of users of these services this year was about 860,000. At the same time, the application of innovations has been expanded, the functionality of the "Mobile Notary" has been increased, as well as new opportunities have been created for citizens to issue a number of power of attorneys in a mobile form.
It was noted that, in the first half of the year, 73 new non-profit organizations, including 4 new political parties were registered as a manifestation of state support for the development of the multiparty system, and about 30 press releases were registered. At present, the total number of non-profit organizations is 4,624, and the number of press releases is 5,343.
It was noted at the meeting that, consistent measures were taken to improve the implementation of court decisions, which play an important role in improving the efficiency of justice, 307,000 executive documents were implemented in six months, and more than 376 million manats were paid by the legal entities and individuals. The application of alternative implementation mechanisms to increase the efficiency of work in this area was discussed.
It was noted that in the current pandemic, alimony, loans, fines and other enforcement payments to debtors are made through the "ASAN payment" and "e-government" portals, as well as through various mobile applications online or through terminals, the provision of parental rights - communication with the child through video communication has increased the efficiency of enforcement of court decisions.
This year also, the application of alternative punishments to imprisonment was expanded, including electron bangles were applied to 1,750 people sentenced to restriction of liberty and other punishments.
The Ministry has completed preliminary investigations on 241 cases against justice judgement, including non-enforcement of court decisions and other crimes, while damages to individuals and legal entities in the amount of 1.13 million manats were compensated during the investigation.
In addition, it was reported that measures are being taken to improve forensic examination activity in accordance with the instructions of the President, this year, the Forensic Examination Center has considered more than 15,000 cases on 41 expert specialties, and 99.7% of the issues raised by experts have been resolved by answering more than 374,000 questions.
Ensuring the rule of law, effective administrative control and strengthening methodological assistance were focused on the activities of municipalities, about 41,000 municipal acts were reviewed as administrative control, more than 1,000 acts were revoked or changed on the basis of the ministry's proposals, and about 3,500 hectares of illegally allocated lands were returned. Protocols on administrative
violations were sent to the courts against 53 mayors who committed violations, and materials on 20 criminal facts were sent to the prosecutor's office.
The Board was informed that, according to the order signed by the President as a manifestation of the humanist policy of 06.04.2020, 176 prisoners over the age of 65, who are at higher risk of contracting the virus, were pardoned. 130 convicts have already been released from prison under the newly adopted legislation on humanization of penal policy. The ministry also released 1,253 people on parole this year, including 983 during the pandemic, as a result of the intensive application of parole and the use of modern information technologies.
At the same time, it was noted that measures are being taken to improve the activities of the penitentiary service, the correctional work of prisoners, their involvement in socially useful labour and to provide various legal assistance to prisoners using the Public Committee under the Minister of Justice, the Board adopted a new draft Instruction on the organization of educational and psychological assistance to prisoners.
The meeting focused on measures to expand international legal cooperation of the Ministry in 2020, it was noted that the Protocol on the extension of the Agreement between the Government of Azerbaijan and the International Committee of the Red Cross, which allows unimpeded access to detention facilities, including penitentiaries, as well as a "Declaration of Commitment" prepared by UNICEF containing the commitments in the field of juvenile justice of the UN Convention on Child Rights has been signed.
At the same time, the ministry has implemented about 8,000 requests for legal assistance and extradition on civil and criminal cases.
Within the framework of the "Year of Volunteers" 2020 announced by the President, the promotion of this institute has been expanded and about 1,000 young people have been involved in volunteer activities in the judiciary and courts, "Justice Volunteers" Public Union was established on the initiative of volunteers working in the field of justice.
In the first half of this year, about 1,000 justice workers, judges and other lawyers were involved in various trainings in distant form at the Academy of Justice during quarantine, and free legal aid was provided to more than 170 low-income people.
The board also noted the measures to improve the judiciary, the creation of a modern judicial infrastructure, and discussed the implementation of the sustainable instructions on the Presidential Decree "On deepening reforms in the judicial-legal system". It was noted that practical measures are being taken jointly with the World Bank to implement the "Electron Court" and "Electron Enforcement" information systems throughout the country.
In order to ensure the access of the population to the courts, the civil proceedings were organized by video conference. Also, in accordance with the newly adopted amendments to the Criminal Procedural Code, criminal proceedings have been launched online in video conference format, emphasizing the exceptional importance of this innovation during the special quarantine regime.
At the meeting there were discussed the tasks to establish justice at the level of high requirements set by the President, given specific instructions on careful and sensitive approach to citizens' appeals, increase of transparency and citizen satisfaction, adherence to the rules of ethical conduct, inadmissibility of corruption and the creation of an anti-corruption environment.
At the end, a number of non-profit legal entities were taken into state registration in the Board.
