SOCIETY
Azerbaijan`s Interior Minister meets Council of Europe Commissioner for human rights
Baku, May 25 (AZERTAC). Azerbaijan`s Minister of Internal Affairs Ramil Usubov has met Nils Muiznieks, the Council of Europe Commissioner for human rights.
Usubov said Azerbaijan had embarked on the path of building a secular, democratic and constitutional state after regaining its independence.
The Minister said the protection of human and civil rights and freedoms was the key priority in Azerbaijan`s state policy.
He added the ministry already started fulfilling the tasks stemming from the orders on “National Action Plan (NAP) for Protection of Human Rights in the Republic of Azerbaijan” signed by President Ilham Aliyev.
Mr. Usubov noted the importance of close cooperation between the Ministry and the Council of Europe, particularly joint work towards strengthening the protection of human rights and freedoms in the country.
He hailed professionalism of employees of the internal affairs bodies: “They are sent to different countries, including the US and our European partner countries to attend special trainings”.
“The last four years alone saw 1,500 employees of the ministry attend a variety of events on human rights held in Azerbaijan and abroad.”
The Minister provided an insight into the “102” service and the Ministry`s “Hot Line”.
He also spoke of police-society and police-citizen relations, adding the Ministry has an appropriate department, which promptly reacts to the cases of violation of human rights by policemen.
According to him, last five years saw the punishment of 1,327 policemen.
Mr. Usubov also touched upon on the construction of detention facilities in urban and regional police stations.
“Last three years saw the OSCE, the International Committee of the Red Cross, Azerbaijan Ombudsman Office and other government and public institutions hold 1,181 monitorings in temporary detention facilities,” he said.
Nils Muiznieks hailed cooperation with the Azerbaijani government, including the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The CoE Commissioner expressed confidence the police authorities would further be actively involved in ongoing democratic reforms in Azerbaijan.