Azerbaijani Authorities Have Not Submitted Texts of Amendments to Constitution to Venice Commission

Official Baku has not submitted to the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe and the OSCE ODIHR texts of amendments and changes planned to the Constitution in the referendum on 26 September. Turan was told this in the Venice Commission in response to a request for review of the proposed changes.

‘Unfortunately, we are unable to answer them, because, firstly, we do not have the text of the amendments, and secondly, we can only analyze the texts, which are transmitted to us in the framework of official inquiries.

The Venice Commission has not received any requests for an opinion on the draft of the constitutional amendments, but is ready to prepare such a conclusion, if an official request comes, in accordance with the Charter of the Commission,’ the Venice Commission replied.

The reply also stated that the Venice Commission could give its opinion on the request of the Committee of Ministers, Parliamentary Assembly, Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe, the Secretary General, as well as at the request of States, international organizations or bodies involved in the work of the Commission.

It seems that so far none of the above structures has ever bothered to check the conformity of draft amendments to the Azerbaijani Constitution with norms of democracy and European standards.

Recall that the State Department and the European Union recommended that the Azerbaijani authorities should submit the draft amendments for analysis to the Venice Commission.   -02B-