Special Mission by Jean-Claude Mignon

Azerbaijan's upcoming chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe was the topic of discussion held on May 26 at the meeting of President Ilham Aliyev with the Head of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Jean-Claude Mignon.

As the site of the head of Azerbaijan said, during the meeting Aliyev expressed confidence that the visit of Mignon will create good opportunities to discuss issues related to the prospects of cooperation.

In turn, Mignon said that one of the main purposes of the visit was "to exchange views on issues related to the preparations for the upcoming chairmanship of Azerbaijan to the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers."

Six-month chairmanship of Azerbaijan at the Committee of Ministers should go until May 2014. 

However, in the structures of the Council of Europe, there are concerns that Azerbaijan's accession to the presidency with serious human rights problems can damage the image of the organization and cause international criticism by the democratic public.

In this regard, Strasbourg sends various missions to Baku in order to convince the authorities of Azerbaijan to make real steps to improve the situation of ensuring democratic freedoms and human rights, tackling the problems of political prisoners.

In April, the delegation of ambassadors of the Monitoring Group of the Committee of Ministers visited Baku, last week Baku was visited by the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights and now the head of the PACE has arrived.

It is noteworthy that two previous missions were not accepted by President Aliyev.  -06D -