Azerbaijan has strong potential for achieving its goals – Ali Hasanov

Baku, Azerbaijan, June 16

Trend:

The 14th International Baku Conference of Ombudsmen, titled “Fundamental Principles of Sustainable Development Goals: Equality, National Priorities and Cooperation”, is being held in Baku June 16.

The conference is being attended by Assistant to the President for Public and Political Issues, Department Head Ali Hasanov, Human Rights Commissioner (Ombudsman) of Azerbaijan Elmira Suleymanova, Vice-Speaker of the Azerbaijani parliament Bahar Muradova, Minister of Culture and Tourism Abulfas Garayev, other officials, MPs and foreign participants.

Addressing the conference with an opening speech, Elmira Suleymanova said that the policy, comprehensive reforms conducted by Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, give effective results in the field of human rights protection.

Azerbaijan is a stable country, and human rights here are fully provided, she noted, adding that the Azerbaijani model of multiculturalism is an example for the world.

Suleymanova stated that the development concept “Azerbaijan 2020: Vision for the Future” and other state programs, being implemented in Azerbaijan systematically and planned, are in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and serve the all-round development of the country.

Then, addressing the event, Assistant to the President for Public and Political Issues Ali Hasanov noted that an important condition for the states that have joined this global initiative is the availability of the necessary resources in order to achieve the goals of sustainable development.

“The successes achieved by Azerbaijan in the years of independence, the current level of development show that our country has strong potential for achieving its goals,” said Hasanov.

He added that today, Azerbaijan is a country with a strong economy, a stable political, legal and social protection system, secure and stable socio-political environment, as well as a state with a renewed infrastructure integrated into international organizations.

Hasanov stated that Azerbaijan achieved great success in the areas of providing human and civil rights and freedoms, development of civil society.

“Freedom of assembly, speech, opinion and press, as well as other freedoms are provided in the country, international standards in the sphere of human rights are observed. Over the past years, the Republic of Azerbaijan has developed cooperation with authoritative international structures working in the field of human rights, has supported more than 50 international documents in the field of human rights protection, and has achieved important successes in implementing international commitments in this field,” he said.

“Today more than 3,000 NGOs, hundreds of media outlets, 55 political parties, communities belonging to different religions operate freely in Azerbaijan. The specific weight of Internet users exceeds 80 percent,” Hasanov said.

“Ensuring human and civil rights and freedoms is considered as a nationwide task in the Republic of Azerbaijan, and national action plans on the protection of human rights are adopted and implemented taking into account the goals of sustainable development, major international priorities in the areas of protecting human rights and democracy, and the rule of law. The amendments made to the Constitution following the referendum held on September 26, 2016, served to create additional guarantees for the further expansion and reliable protection of citizens’ rights,” noted Hasanov.

The assistant to the Azerbaijani president said that the development concepts and strategies, programs and projects prepared in Azerbaijan are usually in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

This shows that the Azerbaijani state is building its policy taking into account global challenges and trends, added Hasanov.