Appeal by the Commissioner for Human Rights (Ombudsman) of the Republic of Azerbaijan to announce Human Rights Month-long Campaign

By the Order of the National Leader Heydar Aliyev dated June 18, 1998, the State Program for the Protection of Human Rights, the first strategic state document in the human rights field in our country was approved. According to the Decree of President Ilham Aliyev dated June 18, 2007, this date is celebrated as Human Rights Day in Azerbaijan every year.

On the eve of this significant day, on the initiative of the Ombudsman, the Human Rights Month-long Campaign is traditionally announced between 18 May-18 June.  

The main goal of this campaign is to strengthen the activities in the field of the protection and promotion of human rights, to enlighten the society about the achievements,  to determine the future challenges in order to alleviate the existing problems, to improve legal thinking and legal culture of people, and to highlight the inadmissibility of discrimination.   

A series of measures to protect and promote human rights are carried out within the frames of this month-long campaign which is also joined by the relevant state authorities, central and local executive bodies, scientific and educational institutions, civil society organizations, including non-governmental organizations and media outlets.   

Within the past period, the practice showed that the measures, taken within the month-long campaign to develop legal thinking and legal culture of the population played a crucial role in their enlightening.  

Since 2020 the measures, taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic announced by the World Health Organization require solidarity, joint cooperation and responsibility from the state and society, as well as from individuals as a whole. Therefore, in order to prevent the spread of this infection in our country, a special quarantine regime is continued with the implementation of urgent preventive and combative social isolation measures.

This should be noted to the point that in addition to the activities carried out in order to restore human rights and freedoms violated by state and local self-government bodies, officials, the Ombudsman also pay special attention to the development of legal awareness of the population in order to prevent human rights violations in cases provided by the Constitutional Law and Office and her Regional Centers of the Ombudsman also carry out their activity in an online format, without live contact, taking into account the existing sanitary and epidemiological situation in the country.

Summing up all the above and announcing 18 May-18 June 2021 as a Human Rights month-long campaign, I call upon all state authorities, municipalities, civil society organizations, including NGOs and mass media to join our initiative.

In this regard, I once more recommend holding online legal awareness discussions, video conferences, as well as preparing various social videos on this topic strictly adhering to the rules of special quarantine regime and call to support the promotion of human rights in mass media and social networks, and to be more sensitive to the prompt consideration of individual applications and the restoration of the violated rights and effective cooperation in this regard.

Sincerely, 

Sabina Aliyeva 

The Commissioner for Human Rights (Ombudsman)

of the Republic of Azerbaijan

18 May 2021