Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

Azerbaijan put considerable efforts to achieve objectives of the Council of Europe during its Chairmanship, said Elmar Mammadyarov, Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister in Brussels on November 13, where Azerbaijan passed its Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the CoE to Belgium.

Azerbaijan took its six-month presidency in the Committee of Ministers from May 14.

“These six months were rather challenging as our continent is going through a difficult time of its history. Azerbaijans’ chairmanship was identified with taking full account of the topical issues on the agenda of the CoE and persistent challenges encountered by member States,” he said at the ceremony.

Mammadyarov noted that combating corruption was among Azerbaijan's main priorities. “My country contributed to the efforts of the CoE through organizing a conference on international standards and national experiences in the fight against corruption in Baku on June 30 –July 1, 2014. The conference discussed the topical issues such as the implementation of anti-corruption legislation, preventive measures against corruption, international co-operation and the success stories and challenges of individual countries,” he said.

“Azerbaijan was particularly pleased to see that the 13th CoE Conference of Sport Ministers in Macolin, Switzerland in September witnessed the signing of the Convention on the Manipulation of Sports Competitions, which will be instrumental in defeating this emerging challenge of the corruption phenomenon. We believe this legal instrument will quickly secure the number of ratifications required for its entry into force, hopefully before the 2015 European Games in Baku,” he added.

Also, Mammadyarov said, an international conference on public service delivery in the context of human rights and good governance was held last September in Baku. “It is worth mentioning that this particular topic was addressed by the CoE for the first time. The conference gave rise to the Azerbaijani proposal to establish an international association of public service delivery agencies as a platform to exchange best practices. We expect the member states’ support to this initiative which has a lot of merit in terms of advancing the CoE objectives.”

The minister noted that consolidation of culturally diverse societies was also among the Azerbaijani Chairmanship priorities.

“The CoE 2014 Exchange on the religious dimension of intercultural dialogue was held in Baku early September under the general topic "Intercultural dialogue: interaction between culture and religion". The Baku exchange once again testified to the importance of this platform as a valuable forum and its conclusions will be examined shortly by the relevant Rapporteur Group to decide on possible follow-up activities.”

“Within this broader line of action, Baku also hosted the first CoE Platform Exchange on Culture and Digitization, European Heritage Days celebration event, CoE Cultural Routes Advisory Forum. The Chairmanship also organized an international forum in Gabala, Azerbaijan within the "No hate speech movement” campaign to consolidate its accomplishments,” he said.

Azerbaijan also sought to complement the Council of Europe’s undertakings to ensure everyone’s access to social rights without discrimination, he said, noting that during the Chairmanship, Azerbaijan also focused on youth and education

“Let me single out one major event, namely the United Nations First Global Forum on youth policies held in Baku on October 28-30 with the strong institutional support of the CoE. About 700 youth ministers, youth policy leaders and professionals coming from more than 80 countries adopted the "Baku commitment to Youth policies" calling for establishing a global initiative on youth policies and the sharing of expertise in the field of public youth policies,” he said.

Furthermore, the protection and promotion of human rights with a particular focus on effectiveness of the Convention system was addressed in a high-level conference on the role of national judges in enhancing the domestic application of the European Convention of Human Rights held in Baku last month, the minister added.

Azerbaijan also took advantage of its Chairmanship to support the Council of Europe's policy regarding neighboring regions.

The minister said that the Chairmanship period was also marked by a close interaction between the Committee of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly. “In this spirit, President Ilham Aliyev addressed the Assembly at its June session. In my capacity of Chairman of the Committee of Ministers, I presented to the Parliamentary Assembly the reports on the activities of our Committee at the June and October sessions and had an exchange of views with its members. I also addressed the meeting of the Standing Committee of Parliamentary Assembly in Baku last May,” he said.

Mammadyarov stressed that the country also invested efforts to strengthen synergy and partnership between the CoE and other international organizations. In this context, Azerbaijan is currently conducting informal negotiations in New York to achieve consensus in the United Nations General Assembly on a draft resolution on co-operation between the United Nations and the CoE.

Azerbaijan will continue, after the completion of the chairmanship term, to render its support to Belgium and Bosnia and Herzegovina in the implementation of the shared priorities, Mammadyarov concluded.