Christophe Poirel: There are 15 times fewer lawyers in Azerbaijan than in Europe

Baku/16.11.18/Turan: Christophe Poirel, Human Rights Director spoke at the International Conference on "The role and independence of lawyers: comparative prospective". He said "I am delighted to be present at the opening of this Conference, which marks another milestone in the implementation of the European Union/Council of Europe joint project under the Partnership for Good Governance.

This project aims to contribute to reinforcing the application of the European Convention on Human Rights and the Strasbourg Court"s case-law in Azerbaijan. No surprise, Azerbaijani lawyers are our key interlocutors in this endeavour along with judges and other actors of the judicial system.

I would like to thank at the outset our hosts - the Bar Association of Azerbaijan and the Academy of Justice of Azerbaijan - for their commitment to cooperate with the Council of Europe. Today"s event is only one element in our comprehensive day-to-day work.

I am also grateful to our international partners - the European Union and the International Commission of Jurists - for sharing our objective and efforts to make justice independent, fair, effective and compliant with the standards enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights.

We have done our best - and I believe we have succeeded - to make this Conference a truly multilateral event. An event of interest not only to Azerbaijan but also to numerous other countries here represented, to whom I would like to extend our gratitude and a warm welcome. The Council of Europe"s main strengths are its unique expertise and multilateral framework. Our cooperation projects are the vehicles to make it work for the sake of a closer union between our member States, as stated in Article 1 of our Statute.

Today and tomorrow we will discuss the role and independence of lawyers in modern society. Lawyers play indeed a key role as intermediaries between the justice system and the public at large. They bear a special responsibility to make justice work for people in everyday life.

They can only make it work if they enjoy a special status and protection under national law and in practice and if they possess the required qualifications. There is still a lot of work to be done in this respect in many countries, including Azerbaijan. Restrictions on the activities of lawyers, not to mention pressure, threats and interference with their work, are matters of great concern and can have no place in Council of Europe member States. The unethical behaviour on the part of some lawyers that one can sometimes witness is equally unacceptable.

The Council of Europe has set both common European standards and tools to implement them on the ground.

As regards the standards first, I have already mentioned the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Court"s abundant case-law which binds our member States. The Convention has recognized and underlined the special role played by lawyers. Their "specific situation gives them a central position in the administration of justice as intermediaries between the public and the courts". They should be also able "to draw the public"s attention to potential shortcomings in the justice system" (Morice v. France, 2015).

Along those lines, the Committee of Ministers has defined a number of minimum, clear standards on the freedom of exercise of the profession of lawyer in its Recommendation (2000) 21 to member States. This Recommendation encapsulates all fundamental principles that must be respected and deserves particular attention. More recently, the Parliamentary Assembly came up with the proposal to draft a convention on the profession of lawyer to strengthen those standards even further.

That said, the Council of Europe"s work is not limited to the standard-setting. We also work day-to-day on the implementation of our standards through our cooperation projects in all our member States. Azerbaijan is by no means an exception.

Since last year we have established constructive relations with the new leadership of the Azerbaijani National Bar and its President Mr Anar Bagirov. The Bar Association has a number of serious challenges to address as the country goes through a major reform of the advocacy. We have engaged in an open dialogue on those matters, including such core issues as the independence and qualification of lawyers. It is clear that these issues will not be resolved over-night.

We are convinced nonetheless that, with the commitment and contribution of all stakeholders in the country, including public authorities, they can be solved. As I said earlier, the Council of Europe is willing to provide all possible assistance to this end and we will pursue our work with the Azerbaijani partners by all means in the months ahead.

Minister, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Let me mention another important point with regard to the effective exercise of the legal profession. If advocates, as an institution, are so fundamental to public confidence in justice and human rights, the public at large must have confidence in the ability of the legal profession to provide effective representation. This ability is contingent on both resources and qualifications.

As regards the resources, one of the major long standing problems to be tackled in Azerbaijan is that the country has by far the lowest ratio of lawyers per person of the population, that is 10 to 100 000. This is 15 times (!) lower than the European average (147 to 100 000). We have noted that certain steps were made in 2018 to improve the Bar admission process in Azerbaijan, but a lot remains to be done. National legislation and practice needs to be aligned with European standards and best practices as many others to fully uphold the role of the lawyers in society.

The Council of Europe is ready to support your efforts to raise national standards on each and every aspect we will address today and tomorrow: the independence of lawyers and their bar associations, free access to the profession, non-interference by the state, freedom to practice and last but not least a high-quality training. The pan-European HELP network for education and training of legal professionals is the Council of Europe"s major tool to ensure qualified legal advice on both the European Convention on Human Rights and national law. I am convinced that our current work with the Azerbaijani Bar to raise future lawyers" qualifications on Convention-related matters through reviewing the bar exams standards will bear fruit in the near future.

We have a single framework of standards that must be complied with by all, but the ways to achieve such compliance may considerably vary. The diversity of national practices which will be presented to us during this conference will speak for themselves and I am sure that all of you will be enriched and inspired by the forthcoming presentations. I thank once again all our hosts, partners and, above all, our distinguished speakers and wish all of us a fruitful Conference. --0--