Azerbaijan, Baku, 12 March / Trend corr I. Alizade/ The meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe (PACE), which is expected to take place in Paris on 14 March, will discuss appointment of a special reporter for the political prisoners in Azerbaijan, the CE Secretariat reported.
The meeting of the PACE Monitoring Committee, which took place in Strasburg on 24 January, decided not to discuss the issue of political prisoners in Azerbaijan during the winter session, and to consider the problem only after the co-rapporteurs visit Baku.
The PACE co-rapporteurs for Azerbaijan Andres Herkel and Yevgenia Zhivkova visited Baku from 4 to 8 February. They studied the problem related to the political prisoners in Azerbaijan and estimated the progress made in this field. On 18 March, co-rapporteurs' report on the results of the visit will be delivered during the meeting of the Monitoring Committee in Paris.
On 7 January 2001, Azerbaijan became a full-time member of the CE and undertook obligations to solve the political prisoner-related problem. From 2001-2005, the PACE special reporter for political prisoners was functioning in Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan's human rights activists consider it necessary to appoint PACE special representative for the political prisoners, while the authorities oppose that.
Azerbaijan will be represented at the PACE Bureau meeting by the head of the Azerbaijani delegation to PACE Samad Seyidov.