Azerbaijan, Baku / Тrend corr K. Zarbaliyeva / The Prison Social Control Committee attached to the Azerbaijani Justice Ministry is being reformed in Azerbaijan. According to the Azerbaijani Justice Ministry, the one-year term of office of the Committee expired in September.
The members of the Committee, which was formed in September 2006 in order to provide social control over the correction of prisoners and activities of penitentiary establishments, paid forty-two visits to nineteen prisons within a year. Reports on the results of the visits were submitted to the Azerbaijani Justice Minister.
Human rights activists and the NGOs engaged in human rights protection are being involved in the selection of new staff for the Committee.
Suggestions and programs of the NGOs wishing to enter the Committee will be assessed by the Election Committee. The new staff of the Prison Social Control Committee will be formed in the near future and will include candidates from NGOs and human rights activists.