On July 10, Minister of Internal Affairs, Colonel-General Vilayat Eyvazov received a delegation headed by Dunja Mijatović, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, who is on a visit to Azerbaijan.
Having welcomed the guests, the Minister noted that the discussions conducted at the meetings held during Ms. Mijatović’s previous visits to our country as the OSCE Media Freedom Representative which were devoted to measures aimed at protection of human rights and freedoms, increase of effectiveness of activities in this sphere and improvement of institutional mechanisms were very useful.

Having emphasized that one of the most important tasks set by President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Mr. Ilham Aliyev for the law-enforcement bodies of the Republic of Azerbaijan is the protection of human rights, Colonel-General V.Eyvazov noted that measures taken in this direction within the framework of close businesslike cooperation between the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Council of Europe are of particular importance, and continuous work is being carried out to prevent harsh treatment of citizens and other negative cases that undermine the reputation of the police.
The Minister noted that the work done in the direction of increasing professionalism and outlook, and application of international practices is carried out purposefully and systematically and mentioned that employees of the Internal Affairs bodies are sent to different countries, including the United States and European countries, for training, and in our country there are various seminars, training and courses organized with the participation of experienced international experts. In the sphere of human rights alone, about 3,000 employees of the MIA took part in the events held in our country and abroad.

It was brought to the attention of the guest that e-services are provided to the population in 28 directions in order to eliminate cases of corruption offences, as well as to minimize civil servant-citizen relations.
Colonel-General V.Eyvazov stated that activities of the Ministry's "102" Service Call Center System and the "Safe City" Service are based on the human factor as the highest principle. Other hotlines established in the MIA ("902" and "1002") as well as e-mail addresses of certain structural units ensure prompt solution of the appeals received by the Board of Appeal which considers appeals on violation of entrepreneurs' rights.

It was also brought to the attention of the Council of Europe Commissioner that appeals on violation of human and civil rights and freedoms by police officers are promptly investigated by the relevant department of the MIA, the results of such investigations are reported and appropriate measures are taken. In just the last 5 years and in the first half of this year 2040 employees were held administratively liable for mistreatment of citizens and for various offenses, in a word, violation of civil rights.  No cases of torture or inhuman treatment of detained or arrested persons were registered. During the mentioned period, 1318 monitoring visits were made by international and local human rights organizations to the temporary detention facilities of territorial police departments (TPD). All of them had been renovated and reconstructed and equipped with state-of-the art video surveillance cameras.

Dunja Mijatović expressed her gratitude for the reception and detailed information, highly appreciated the cooperation with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and recalled that the main purpose of this visit was to provide comprehensive assistance and support in the field of human and civil rights and freedoms. She projected hope that the police would continue to participate actively in the process of democratic reforms carried out in our country on the initiative of the Council of Europe.
A number of other issues were also discussed at the meeting. The guests' questions were answered in detail.