Ombudsman Office and Bar Association held a meeting

The Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights (Ombudsman) and the Bar Association of the Republic of Azerbaijan held a videoconference on “Cooperation of the Ombudsman Office and Bar Association in protecting human rights” devoted to June 18, Human Rights Day in Azerbaijan.

The Ombudsman Sabina Aliyeva firstly extended her congratulations to participants on Human Rights Day, noted the importance of Human Rights Month-long Campaign running between May 18 and June 18, and referred to numerous and large-scale events organized in this context. She has mentioned that events held with participation of state and civil society institutions are of special importance to strengthen activities for the protection and promotion of human rights, inform the society about the results obtained and develop legal thinking and legal culture of the population.

The Commissioner touched upon the key importance of advocacy in the modern world and thus the paramount significance of collaboration between the Ombudsman institution and Bar Association. Sabina Aliyeva pointed that future collaboration will be of importance in the directions of providing professional legal assistance to population, legal awareness raising and improving legislation. 

The chairman of the Bar Association, Anar Bagirov noted that the first event held between two institutions plays an important role in discussing the issues on protection of human rights and freedoms, at the same time for defining joint activity directions.

He drew attention to the relevant actions taken by the Bar Association in the framework of implementation of the National Program for Action to Raise Effectiveness of the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms in the Republic of Azerbaijan (2011) and reported that the Ombudsman Office was also informed about the outcome. Anar Bagirov also spoke about the activities carried out towards the development of lawyering in Azerbaijan and shared his views about future bilateral cooperation. 

The parties also held discussions on the issues of mutual interest and put forward a number of proposals.