The visit began with an excursion to the Debating Chamber of Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. On the same day, the group met with the Administrator of the Council of Europe to discuss the role of this organization in a political landscape. Afterwards, the group met with representatives of the Legislative Support and National Human Rights Structure Division and the Justice Reform and Police Division.
The following day, the Azerbaijani lawyers attended two Court hearings before the Grand Chamber in Elkhan Ciragov and others v. Armenia and Minas Sargsyan v. Azerbaijan cases. Both pertain to the events of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
From the commencement of hostilities in 1988, by May 1994 when the cease fire was signed by the parties, the conflict resulted in hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons on both sides. The applicants in the cases concerned were among those forcibly displaced. Mr. Ciragov and Mr. Saragasyan brought their charges before the Court relying upon Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 (protection of property) and Articles 8 (right to respect for private and family life) and 13 (right to an effective remedy) of the Convention.
Following the Court hearings, the group met with Vugar Fataliyev, an Azerbaijani lawyer at the Court. Mr. Fataliyev addressed the lawyers’ questions concerning the Ciragov and Sargsyan cases as well as other procedural issues, including those related to the application of the Protocol No. 14.
On the last day, the delegation met with the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Thomas Hammarberg. In the course of the meeting, Azerbaijani lawyers expressed the need to enhance the Commissioner’s activities throughout the country, including closer cooperation with civil society movements in Azerbaijan.
While talking to Charlotte de Broutelles from the Department for the execution of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, the delegation mentioned the Azerbaijan’s problems with executing the Court’s judgements. In this respect, the delegation stressed the state’s reluctance in taking necessary measures that would lead to effective elimination of the reasons underlying the human rights violations in Azerbaijan.
