Azerbaijan, Baku, 30 May / Trend corr I. Alizade/ The Azerbaijani Parliament has approved changes and supplements into the Law on Freedom of Assembly. On 30 May, the Parliament met to discuss the changes and supplements made into the Law on Freedom of Assembly.
Currently operated Law on Freedom of Assembly was passed in 1998. In 2005, development of a draft law to make changes and supplements into the Law commenced. The Venice Commission of the Council of Europe (CE) positively assessed the project designed by the Azerbaijani Government.
The Chairman of standing parliamentary commission on human rights Rabiyyat Aslanova said that according to the changes in the Law, people who are residing in Azerbaijan but are not the citizens of the country, as well as foreign citizens, can hold mass actions. Moreover, wedding, other ceremonies and funerals must not be turned into mass actions. The distance to be kept from the state bodies during the mass actions has been reduced from 300m to 200m. Organizers of mass actions must apply to the city or regional administrations five days before the action. The administrations should respond organizers three days before the fixed data. The courts should examine the complaints on staging demonstrations in the course of two days.
According to Aslanova, the organizer of the mass demonstrations should certainly take part in them. "If one of the organizers of the demonstration will not take part, this demonstration can not be staged," she said.
According to the other change, at the decision of the executive powers, the mass demonstrations can be banned because of the security measures prior to the events of the international significance on days of their holding. Apart from, it is banned to hold more than one demonstration at the same time and at the same place.
According to the changes, ban to hold mass demonstrations in places of religious worship and cemeteries is eliminated. The demonstrations in the above-mentioned places can be restricted only by the executive powers. It is banned to conduct war propaganda in peaceful demonstrations. Moreover, the mass demonstrations can be held only in places determined by the regional and city executive powers.
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