Delegation of EU visits ministry of Justice of Azerbaijan

Baku, February 25, AzerTAc Azer Jafarov, Deputy Minister of Justice, member of the Judicial-Legal Council, has met with the delegation led by the European Union Special Representative for Human Rights Stavros Lambrinidis, press service of the ministry said. Noting the development of cooperation between Azerbaijan and the European Union, the Deputy Minister informed about the actions aimed at ensuring human rights, as well as large-scale judicial reforms conducted in the country. Jafarov spoke of modernization of infrastructure, transparent elections of judges positively assessed by the Council of Europe and the European Union. He also informed about the work done within the framework of the EU and Eastern Partnership, as well as successful implementation of joint projects in the field of justice. Mr. S. Lambrinidis stressed the interest of EU in strengthening of the relations with Azerbaijan in different fields, including the field of human rights. Emphasizing the importance of judicial and legal reforms in the country in terms of human rights protection, the guest praised the positive results in this area. Mr. Lambrinidis appreciated the role of the Council in the implementation of self-government of judicial power , underlining the issue of such model should be a topic of discussion in committee meetings. Stressing the efficient cooperation between EU and Ministry of Justice, the guest thanked for the creation of conditions to visit prisons and expressed his readiness to support to further develop cooperation between the sides. The meeting also discussed a number of other issues of mutual interest and exchanged views on protection of human rights, improvement of legislation, impartiality of judicial power, development of civil society, application of alternative forms of punishment and others. Head of the EU Delegation in Baku Malena Mard attended the meeting.