Outgoing rights champion reports on seven-year activity
Ombudswoman Elmira Suleymanova delivered her last
report on human rights in Azerbaijan in parliament on Friday,
reviewing her activity as the country`s top rights defender.
Suleymanova`s seven-year tenure expires in 2009.
Suleymanova told the parliament that during her tenure she had received over 42,000 appeals from citizens. A lion`s share of the pleas - 93 percent - were made up by complaints over alleged rights violations.
The Ombudswoman emphasized that she had declined to review 52.6 percent of the appeals due to their not falling within her scope of activities under the law. 35.7 percent of the complaints that were accepted for consideration in 2003-2008 were ruled upon.
Further, the rights champion said a number of complaints received by her office concerned alleged red tape obstacles faced by citizens in different areas, along with procrastination and official arbitrariness.
In a positive trend, she said the number of complaints filed over local executive authority bodies went down in 2008 in comparison with previous years.
The Ombudswoman went on to say that a considerable portion of the complaints dealing with prosecution bodies pertained to police investigations.
Citizens are mostly unhappy with being unable to meet with government officials, not receiving timely replies to their appeals as well as formal and unfounded replies to their applications to authorities.
During discussions in the legislature, pro-government lawmakers positively viewed the Ombudswoman`s report and her overall activity. However, opposition MPs were not given the floor, which caused growing discontent.
The parliament adopted the report by a majority of votes.
Under Azerbaijan`s Constitution, the Ombudsman, who holds the post for seven years, cannot be reappointed. The media has been mentioning MPs Rabiyyat Aslanova and Elmira Akhundova as Suleymanova`s would-be successor.
Suleymanova told the parliament that during her tenure she had received over 42,000 appeals from citizens. A lion`s share of the pleas - 93 percent - were made up by complaints over alleged rights violations.
The Ombudswoman emphasized that she had declined to review 52.6 percent of the appeals due to their not falling within her scope of activities under the law. 35.7 percent of the complaints that were accepted for consideration in 2003-2008 were ruled upon.
Further, the rights champion said a number of complaints received by her office concerned alleged red tape obstacles faced by citizens in different areas, along with procrastination and official arbitrariness.
In a positive trend, she said the number of complaints filed over local executive authority bodies went down in 2008 in comparison with previous years.
The Ombudswoman went on to say that a considerable portion of the complaints dealing with prosecution bodies pertained to police investigations.
Citizens are mostly unhappy with being unable to meet with government officials, not receiving timely replies to their appeals as well as formal and unfounded replies to their applications to authorities.
During discussions in the legislature, pro-government lawmakers positively viewed the Ombudswoman`s report and her overall activity. However, opposition MPs were not given the floor, which caused growing discontent.
The parliament adopted the report by a majority of votes.
Under Azerbaijan`s Constitution, the Ombudsman, who holds the post for seven years, cannot be reappointed. The media has been mentioning MPs Rabiyyat Aslanova and Elmira Akhundova as Suleymanova`s would-be successor.
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