Ms President,
Mr Secretary General,
Distinguished members of the Parliamentary Assembly,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is a great honour for me to once again address this distinguishedAssembly in my capacity of Chairman of the Committee of Ministers. I will not focus on all theachievements of the Committee of Ministers since the last session of theAssembly in June, of which you can read the details in the activity reportprovided.
Instead, I will focus on the most significant developments linked, onthe one hand, to the current crisis unfolding in Europeand, on the other hand, the priority areas of our chairmanship.
Summer 2014 will go down as a particularly dark time for our continent.Last July, like many political leaders throughout the world, I could not butexpress, on behalf of the Committee of Ministers, my profound indignation overthe downing of the Malaysia Airlines plane in eastern Ukraine.
Like you, Ms President, I made a point of reiterating the call to allthe parties involved for an independent inquiry to quickly establish the exactcircumstances of this disaster. The independent experts have produced theirinitial conclusions and I hope that they will be able to progress in their workand fully elucidate this tragedy. To continue their investigations, they shouldbe provided immediately with safe and unrestricted access to the crash site.
As demonstrated by your current affairs debate yesterday, the situationin Ukraineremains at the heart of the current concerns of all Council of Europe bodies.For their part, the Ministers' Deputies have continued to discuss the conflictin Ukraineat each of their meetings. In this connection, they held an extraordinarymeeting at the beginning of September at which the Secretary General reportedon his visits to Ukraine andthe Russian Federationat the end of the summer. More recently, the Deputies also held an exchange ofviews with the Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr Muižnieks, after his visit to Crimea.
In the light of those exchanges, the Committee of Ministers recentlyadopted a set of important decisions on the situation in Ukraine. Thosedecisions are intended firstly to reiterate a number of fundamental principlesof international law, in particular the peaceful settlement of disputes and thenecessity of respecting States' territorial integrity. They also aim to fosterthe emergence of a peaceful and sustainable solution to the conflict. In thisrespect, the Deputies welcomed the Protocol signed in Minsk on 5 September 2014 and called on allparties to respect and scrupulously apply the twelve principles laid down init.
The Committee of Ministers also sought to provide political support forthe efforts made to resolve the crisis: it gave a clear brief to the SecretaryGeneral to continue to assist the Ukrainian authorities in carrying out theirreforms, and notably in preparing the parliamentary elections to take place on26 October. The holding of free and fair elections, in line with internationalstandards throughout the territoryof Ukraine, will be animportant step in consolidating the democratic progress made by that countryand in resolving the conflict. I am pleased to see that your Assembly hasdecided to send an observer mission and make its own contribution to the smoothrunning of the elections.
In the humanitarian field, the Committee of Ministers encouraged theSecretary General to examine how the Council of Europe can address, in co-ordinationwith other international organisations, the humanitarian needs and the humanrights consequences of the military operations in Ukraine. In particular itunderlined that the people living in Crimea,including the Tatars, must fully enjoy the protection afforded to them by theEuropean Convention on Human Rights.
The Committee of Ministers will continue to closely monitor developmentsin Ukraine.
In a few weeks' time, on 13 November to be precise, we will hand overthe chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers to Belgium but in the meantime we willcontinue to implement our priorities. In this respect, the adoption of theConvention on the Manipulation of Sports Competitions by the Committee ofMinisters last July is a source of great satisfaction for the AzerbaijaniChairmanship.
This Convention is very much in keeping with the Council of Europe'slong-standing commitment to sporting ethics. It is also a contribution to thefight against corruption, which is one of Azerbaijan's main priorities. I amparticularly pleased that, at the 13th Council of Europe Conference ofMinisters responsible for Sport held in Macolin,Switzerland on18 September, no fewer than 15 member States, including my own country, signedthe Convention. I hope that the Convention, which is open to both member andnon-member States, will quickly secure the number of ratifications required forits entry into force. We would wish this could take place before the 2015European Games in Baku,which have served as one of the reasons of our consistent support to theadoption of this important legal framework. The selection of Baku as one of the cities to host the UEFAEuro 2020 matches will definitely encourage us to continue the promotion ofthis convention well beyond our chairmanship tenure.
Under this particular chairmanship priority, a conference on international standards and nationalexperiences in the fight against corruption was organised in Baku on 30 June – 1 July 2014, togetherwith GRECO and the International Anti-Corruption Academy (IACA). Three dedicatedplenary sessions allowed for profound exchange of views on a variety of issueslike the implementation of anti-corruption legislation and its role inincreasing of the efficiency of the judicial-legal system, fighting corruptionthrough education, preventive measures against corruption, economic developmentand fight against corruption, international cooperation between specialisedanti-corruption agencies, protection of participants of the criminal processduring the investigation of corruption crimes. The participants had the chanceto learn about the success stories and challenges of individual countries.
The cooperation with the International Anti-CorruptionAcademy proved efficienton this particular occasion and the conference can be viewed as a good exampleof the Council of Europe – IACA interaction in the field of fight againstcorruption. The decision taken by the IACA to hold its third Assembly nextmonth in Baku is,to some extent, the logical outcome ofthis successful chairmanship event.
Another important event Azerbaijanorganised within its chairmanship agenda was the international conference on“Public service delivery in the context of human rights and good governance” lastweek in Baku.It’s worth noting this particular topic was addressed bythe Council of Europe for the first time. The event allowedparticipants to get acquainted with the work of successful models of individualcountries, including Azerbaijani State Agency for Public Service and Social Innovations- ASAN Service – which, by the way, had been hailed by Secretary GeneralJagland during his April visit to Azerbaijan, as a unique model to bebenefited by many European countries. One of the important messages coming outof the discussions was the proposal of the Azerbaijani side to establish an internationalassociation of public service delivery agencies as a platform to exchange bestpractices. We hope that this proposal will be followed up duly.
Under the chairmanship priorities relating to the consolidation of culturally diverse societies based on mutual respect andunderstanding, the first Council of EuropePlatform Exchange on Culture and Digitisationentitled “Creating an enabling environment for digital culture andfor empowering citizens” was held in Baku early July 2014 as part of thefollow-up to the 10th Conference of European Ministers of Culture held inMoscow in April 2013. Discussions placed a special focus on the impact of digitisation on culture, transition from the pre-digitalto the digital era, needs of the cultural sector and its actors, as regardsaccess to, creation and dissemination of cultural content, empowerment ofcitizens and creation of enabling environment for digital culture. It was important to note that the platform meetinghighlighted the potential place and the role of the Council of Europe as anappropriate forum for drafting common standards and mechanisms that couldfurther strengthen cooperation in this field. Within this context, relevant policy guidelines will be developed soon.
The next important event under this chairmanship priority, the Councilof Europe 2014 Exchange on the religious dimension of intercultural dialoguewas held in Bakuin September. The Parliamentary Assembly also contributed to this event throughhighlighting the role of the Assembly in strengthening intercultural andinterreligious dialogue. The theme of the exchange, “Intercultural dialogue: interactionbetween culture and religion”, led to a rich and lively debate. Participants highlighted the role of religions and non-religious convictions incombating discrimination and intolerance. Important references were made to preservation and protection ofcultural and religious heritage as one of the integral elements of people'sidentity and essential resource for peaceful coexistence. The latest edition ofExchange in Bakuin our view once again testified to the importance of this platform as a valuableForum and gave rise to proposals regarding the future prospectsfor the exchanges. The Committee of Ministers will examine the conclusions ofthe 2014 Exchange in the weeks ahead.
Let me inform the distinguished Assembly ofanother major event that started its work today in Baku, namely the 4th session ofthe Baku Humanitarian Forum. This Forum is an annual gathering of famousrepresentatives of political scientific and cultural elite of the worldincluding famous statesmen, Nobel Prize winners in the various fields ofscience and leaders of international organizations. This year’s Forum willdiscuss among others the topical themes such as the philosophy ofmulticulturalism, the political and legal aspects of concepts of nationalidentity and the practice of cultural diversity, multiculturalism as a policyof the tolerant co-existence of different cultural practices. Although thisevent was not included into the list of Azerbaijani chairmanship events, itwill certainly contribute to our chairmanship priority dealing with the consolidation of culturally diverse societies.
During my June statementhere in this hemicycle, I informed you of my Government’s intention to host in Bakua high-level event - the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations VII GlobalForum in 2016. During the time elapsed since your last session, considerableprogress has been achieved in this direction. Just a few days ago, a formaldecision on this matter was taken by the Alliance of Civilisations in themargins of the 69th session of the United Nations General Assembly.Moreover, in order to promote understanding, dialogue andreconciliation among different cultures through concrete projects, “Action Planon Joint Activities” was signed between the Government of Azerbaijan and the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations earlier during the Balisession of the Alliance.Implementation of this Action Plan will be a humble contribution of my Governmentto the practical approach towards the global challenges.
Under our chairmanshippriority dealing with social cohesion, we have organised in Baku on 10-11 September a Conference toreview the Council of Europe Social Cohesion Strategy and Action Plan. Thisconference provided an excellent opportunity to take stock of the progressachieved since the adoption of these important instruments in 2010. It alsoserved as a platform for tackling important themes such as social cohesion and Europeansocial model in times of economic crisis, diversity in European societies, currentand future challenges for more inclusive societies.
As I had a chance to informthe distinguished Assembly last time, my Government expressed its intention tohost the next Council of Europe Conference of Ministers responsible for SocialCohesion in Baku.I hope that the Committee of Ministers will take positive formal decision onthat very soon.
Within its next chairmanship priority, Azerbaijan also sets great store byeducation and protection for young people. The Council of Europe campaign tostop sexual violence against children, launched in 2010, has been enjoyingconsiderable success. It is widely appreciated and provides an effective toolfor combating one of the worst kinds of violation of children's rights. As aresult, the Ministers' Deputies decided, last July, to extend the ONE in FIVEcampaign for one year, until the end of 2015. Besides protecting the physicaland psychological integrity of children, more efforts must also be made towardsyoung people, particularly to involve them more in decision-making. I ampleased to see, therefore, that the next World Forum for Democracy to be stagedhere in Strasbourg, on 3 to 5 November, will look at ways of engaging youngpeople in rethinking the democratic arenas of today, including via the newtechnologies. The title of this year's Forum is "From participation toinfluence: can youth revitalise democracy?" Allow me to remind you in thisconnection that Azerbaijanwill host the United Nations Global Forum on youth policies at the end ofOctober in Bakuwith the institutional support of the Council of Europe.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Developing the Council of Europe's policy regarding neighbouring regionsremains on the Committee of Ministers’ agenda and is another strong focus ofour Chairmanship. Thanks to our favourable location at the crossroads of thecontinents and historic relations with the countries of the immediateneighbourhood of the European continent, Azerbaijanis well placed to have taken the initiative of organising a high-levelconference on the neighbourhood policy, to be held in Baku on 7-8 November 2014. The conference ismeant to serve as a useful platform for taking stock of the achievements madeso far in our Organisation’s quest for promoting dialogue, cooperation anddeepening of engagement with several countries of the neighbouring regions throughstrengthened political dialogue and exchanging views on how to better shape thefuture course of this policy.
I hope that your Assembly will be able to participate in and contributeto this major event marking our Chairmanship. In this context, I welcome thefact that the Committee of Ministers recently granted Tunisia'srequest to be invited to join the European Centre for Global Interdependenceand Solidarity, better known as the North-South Centre. Co-operation betweenthe Council of Europe and neighbouring countries, be they on the southern shoreof the Mediterranean or in Central Asia, isconstantly strengthening. Your Assembly, which pioneered the "Partner fordemocracy status", will certainly view these developments with a keensense of satisfaction. For its part, the Committee of Ministers is currentlyconsidering arrangements for a reinforced partnership with a number ofcountries covered by the neighbourhood policy for the period 2015-2017. YourAssembly will be kept informed of the outcome of this work which, if all goeswell, should be completed by the end of the year.
As we stated at the very beginning of our chairmanship, Azerbaijan hasalways been supportive of strengthening synergy and partnership between theUnited Nations and regional organizations. In this context, we would like toemphasize the importance and relevance of the traditional Resolution oncooperation between the United Nations and the Council of Europe which weexpect to be adopted by consensus by the United Nations General Assembly. Azerbaijan willbe privileged to conduct the negotiations on this draft resolution this year asthe current Chairman of the Committee of Ministers.
When it comes to the OSCE, co-operation between the two Organisations inthe fight against terrorism and trafficking in human beings will be on theagenda of the next meeting of the Coordination Group which will be held in Vienna on 31 October.
Ladies and Gentlemen, in a few moments I will be happy to reply to your questionsbut first, as I am addressing you in my capacity of Chairman of the Committeeof Ministers for the last time, I would like to say that I am honoured to be soclosely involved in our Organisation's work. The Council of Europe has amission to help all our countries along the path of democracy and human rights.I am convinced that, to accomplish this task, it is vital that your Assemblyand our Committee continue to work in close collaboration. I would like tothank you for the support you have provided throughout our Chairmanship. Iwould also like to thank the Secretary General for his commitment andavailability.
Mr Secretary General, after being elected by a substantial majority ofthis Assembly in June, he was recently sworn in by the Committee of Ministers. We have taken note of his strategic vision for hissecond mandate as how to increase the relevance and efficiency of the Councilof Europe.I am convinced that he will succeed in carrying out the numerous and difficult tasks thatwill be entrusted to him over the next five years.
Last but not least, I would like to assure you that we will continue,after the completion of our chairmanship term next month, to render our supportto Belgium and Bosnia and Herzegovinain the implementation of the shared priorities that the three countries have subscribedto.
Thank you for your attention.
(Source: Foreign Ministry website)
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