Azerbaijan, Baku / Trend corr. К.Zarbaliyeva / Chingiz Ganizadeh, the Chairman of the Committee for Democracy and Human Rights, considers that the Public Committee at the Justice Ministry of Azerbaijan does not promote correction of prisoners.
The Public Committee at the Justice Ministry of Azerbaijan is an organization which controls the functioning of institutions on implementation penalties.
The member of the Public Committee, Ganizadeh has stated to Trend Agency that the yearly functions of the organization, which began on 22 September 2006, are not satisfactory.
According to Ganizadeh, the Public Committee held several monitorings within a year and has not implemented any project on correction of prisoners. Ganizadeh accuses Kamil Salimov, the coordinator of the organization.
The Justice Ministry of Azerbaijan has created all the necessary conditions for the organization to function but the coordinator has hindered the normal functioning of the Committee. Salimov stated that the Committee implemented a range of projects, including monitorings and becoming familiar with conditions in prisons. The coordinator noted that all proposals regarding resolving the problems which were revealed during the monitoring, would be submitted to the minister.
Other members of the Committee and the Chairman of the League on Protection Labour Rights of Citizens, Sahib Mammadov, did not agree with Ganizadeh and noted that the functioning of the Committee was satisfactory. The existence of such a Committee assists in keeping control of the prisons.
Faik Gurbanov, the Head of the Human Rights and Public Relations Department at the Justice Ministry, noted that the main attention for the new appointed members of the Committee will be focused on experience in this sphere, Gurbanov noted. According Mammadov, absence of material and technical resources became another main reason for implementation all tasks of the Committee.
In compliance with the Charter of the Public Committee only 11 representatives of non-governmental organizations can work in the Committee. Presently, there are only 8 people in the Committee.