The next Meeting of the "Business and Human Rights" Working Group under the Ombudsman has been held

The next 17^th meeting of the Business and Human Rights Working Group under the Ombudsman has been held. The Commissioner for Human Rights (Ombudsman) of the Republic of Azerbaijan Elmira Suleymanova, the Chairman of the Food Safety Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan Goshgar Tahmazli, the Head of the National Program on Azerbaijan of the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs(SECO) Sanan Shabanov, representatives of the relevant state bodies, the members of the Expert Council acting under the Ombudsman and other representatives of the NGOs attended the event dedicated to the “Food Safety issues in the context of Business and Human Rights”.

The event was opened by the Commissioner’s greetings and she gave information on its purpose and mission. During the speech she mentioned that as a result of the activity of the Working Group more than 25 members from the state bodies or civil society represented in, a number of drafted proposals were presented to the relevant bodies, consequences were monitored, certain state bodies and the public were notified about the summarized joint proposals, some of them were considered in the amendments to the normative-legal acts, newly adopted state programs.

It was noted that being an integral part of the economic and national security, the provision of population with safe food products assumed crucial importance for the state, being one of the socio-economic issues solution of which is significant. This sphere covers the wide spectrum of national, economic, social, demographic and ecological factors and conditions mobilizing available resources, elaborating strategy of economic reforms and application of effective legal norms.

In her speech the Ombudsman stated that besides being dangerous for the life and health of people and an extra burden on state health system, creates serious obstacles for the economic development and also significantly damages the tourism and trade sectors. In this regard, ensuring food security, promoting sustainable agriculture, issues of ensuring healthy living of everyone regardless of their age, clean water and sanitation are considered as separate goals in the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals.

The Commissioner noted the importance of food safety and strengthening public control in this area with the purpose of ensuring rights, establishing close cooperation, operative coordination among the relevant state bodies, NGOs and civil society institutions, conducting joint monitoring in regions benefiting the opportunities of the Regional Centers of the Ombudsman, holding broad legal education events with the participation of consumers and preparing print materials.

The chairman of the Food Safety Agency expressed his gratitude to the Commissioner for the organization of an event on such an actual topic and the invitation. He pointed out the significance of establishing effective cooperation relations on the mentioned sphere.

In his speech, the Chairman of the Agency gave information about the powers, functions and implemented broad activity of the Agency, which was established by the relevant Decree of the country President and started operating in January of the year 2018. He said that during the first six months, the process of establishing material, technical and regulatory framework of the organization was completed and since July, 2018 the Agency has been implementing the state policy in the field of food security on the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan, state control on food safety, veterinary and phytosanitary areas, import and export of food products, the activity on certification of products, evaluation and management of risks in all the stages of food chain, institutional changes in the area and the awareness issues.

He mentioned that Food Safety Institute under the Agency which was supplied with modern equipment and being unique in the region, conducting scientific-practical research in the area of safety of food products, implementing risk evaluation on the basis of the scientific principles, elaborating drafts of the normative-technical acts on food safety, voluntary application of international standards by the producers of food products, research services according to the instructions on safety of the food products. 

He also drew the attention of the participants of the event to the statistical information related to their activity. 

In the roundtable discussion the views were exchanged about the effect of food safety issues on human rights, as well as compliance with quality-security standards, sanitary-hygienic norms in the stages of production, transportation and storage of the food products, strengthening the inspection-control activity in determination of food products as harmful to human health, expansion of awareness raising events with the entrepreneurs and population, improvement of the current norms in the mentioned area and effective coordination of the activity of the relevant state bodies, NGOs.

During the discussions, the Chairman of the Board of Azerbaijan Women Entrepreneurs Association, the Head of National NGO Forum, the Head of the Azerbaijan Women and Development Center and other attendees expressed their opinions and conclusions.

Numerous questions of the participants were answered.