EUROPEAN COMMISSION AGAINST RACISM AND INTOLERANCE REPORTS ON AZERBAIJAN; OFFICIAL CALLS IT "ABSURD"
Today.Az
25 May 2007 [09:24]
European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) publicized
a report on Azerbaijan.
"Since the publication of ECRI’s first report on Azerbaijan on 15 April
2003, progress has been made in a number of the fields highlighted
in that report. In the area of education, access to public school
for children of non-citizens without legal status has been improved
and measures in favour of teaching human rights as well as minority
languages have been taken. A "State Programme on improvement of the
living conditions and raising employment for refugees and internally
displaced persons (IDPs)" was adopted in 2004 and is currently being
implemented. A procedure for granting the status of refugee was put
in place and some asylum seekers have already obtained refugee status
on this basis.
"However, a number of recommendations made in ECRI’s first report have
not been implemented, or have only been partially implemented. There
are still cases of racist and inflammatory speech or the promotion of
religious intolerance by some media, members of the general public
and politicians, particularly against Armenians, Russian citizens
from Chechnya and members of some religious minorities. The unsolved
conflict over Nagorno Karabakh continues to have a negative impact
on the climate concerning Armenians.
"In this report, ECRI recommends that the Azerbaijani authorities
take further action in a number of areas. It recommends in particular
that they provide officials in the judicial system with more training
on the importance of adequately applying criminal law provisions to
combat racism and intolerance. It asks that a specialised body be set
up to combat racism and racial discrimination and that the civil and
administrative law provisions prohibiting racial discrimination be
strengthened. Measures should be taken to solve the problems linked
to the lack of legal status of some categories of non-citizens living
in Azerbaijan."
Khazar Ibrahim, head of Foreign Ministry press center told APA Council
of Europe as respected body should approach issues very objectively.
"There is no problem between confessions, ethnic groups and nations
in Azerbaijan. Tolerance and understanding culture in Azerbaijan have
its ancient roots. The only problem is conflict with Armenia and this
emerged because of Armenians policy. Armenian aggressive policy led
to the occupation of Azerbaijan territories and deportation of many
Azerbaijani people from their homes.
Unfortunately, Council of Europe ignores the policy of ethnic cleansing
carried out by neighboring Armenia, releases unrealistic information
on Azerbaijan. It said Azerbaijan suffers from lack of information
on racism and intolerance.
This is absurd. In comparison with other states, Azerbaijan does not
need it as it is already part of Azerbaijani history and culture,"
he underlined.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
