Statement by Elmar Mammadyarov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan, at the presentation of the priorities of the Chairmanship of the Republic of Azerbaijan of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe

Vienna, May 7, 2014

Mr President,

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

At the outset, I would like to once again congratulate my distinguished colleague, Minister Sebastian Kurz and his excellent team for successful and productive Chairmanship during rather busy and testing 6 months period.

It is indeed a great privilege for the Republic of Azerbaijan to assume, for the first time since becoming a member of the Council of Europe in January 2001, the chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers. The chairmanship of Azerbaijan comes at a historic moment when the Organization celebrates its 65th anniversary. This is truly an important milestone for the Council of Europe which has long been considered as a reference point with its strong and unique set of standards.

Over the next six months, my country will render its strong support and invest its efforts around three key pillars of the Council of Europe - human rights, rule of law and democracy. Upholding and promoting core values of the Council of Europe will be at the center of all our activities and undertakings during this period.

The key priorities of the Azerbaijani chairmanship have been identified by taking full account of topical and pressing issues persisting on the agenda of the Council of Europe, as well as Azerbaijan’s positive record and comparative advantages.

We will obviously pay close attention to existing challenges to democracy, security and stability in Europe to ensure prompt and resolute response by Member States. In doing so, the Chairmanship of Azerbaijan will seek consensual decisions in the spirit of compromise, through reinforced dialogue, mutual respect and understanding.

Enhanced co-operation in combating corruption will be one of the key priorities of Azerbaijani chairmanship. We will contribute to the efforts of the Council of Europe, which has also declared combating corruption as one of its priority tasks, by organizing a dedicated high-level conference in Baku in cooperation with the International Anti-Corruption Academy. This conference will provide an opportunity to exchange views on national experiences and best practices through highlighting the implementation of anti-corruption laws and ensuring preventive measures.

The Chairmanship of Azerbaijan will also keep close tabs on the possible adoption of the Council of Europe Convention on the manipulation of sport competitions and we will extend our support also to soonest opening of this Convention to signature. As you are aware, Baku will host the first ever European Games in 2015 and this is another solid reason why we are promoting the adoption of this Convention during its chairmanship.

Managing cultural diversity in constantly growing societies has become one of the central topics in today’s Europe. Azerbaijan has historically been a place for the peaceful co-existence of followers of different religions and the issue of promotion of religious and cultural diversity has always been high on our agenda. During its Chairmanship Azerbaijan will contribute to combating discrimination and intolerance in Europe not least through highlighting the role of intercultural dialogue. We will be privileged to organize the 2014 Council of Europe annual exchange on the religious dimension of intercultural dialogue. We hope this meeting will reiterate the value and importance of the consolidation of culturally diverse societies based on mutual respect and understanding.

The Chairmanship of Azerbaijan considers social cohesion and social sustainability as an important element of any stable and prosperous society. Our efforts in this direction will seek to complement the Council of Europe's undertakings in ensuring everyone's access to social rights without any discrimination, with a special emphasis on vulnerable groups. Experiencing itself large-scale displacement due to Armenian occupation, Azerbaijan will undoubtedly pay close attention to the protection of human rights of internally displaced persons, a vulnerable segment of the population, within relevant activities of the Chairmanship. We are persuaded that this matter deserves to be vested a constant attention within the Council of Europe in the future, since millions of people in Europe of XXI century still suffer from this very very unfortunate phenomenon.

Our work will also focus on youth and education, two integral elements for building prosperous and stable societies. We will place particular emphasis on the importance of nurturing a generation of educated and responsible youth which, we all agree, comes through ensuring enhanced access of youth to their rights. Baku will host two important events under this priority line of action, namely the 4th regional ministerial meeting on the implementation of the European Higher Education Area and UN Global Forum on Youth Policy. UN Forum will benefit from the strong institutional support of the Council of Europe.

Enhancing the effectiveness of the Convention system remains one of the key priorities of the Council of Europe. The Chairmanship of Azerbaijan will strive to contribute to the efforts of the Council of Europe in this field, through extending its support to the follow-up to the Declarations adopted in Interlaken, Izmir and Brighton. Special attention will be given to the effective implementation of the Convention at national level and to this end, a high-level conference on the role of national judges in enhancing the domestic application of the Convention will be held in Baku.

Upon the initiative of the Secretary General, the Council of Europe has embarked on ambitious political reforms which will receive our strong and unequivocal support during this tenure. The Chairmanship of Azerbaijan will also support the further strengthening of co-operation with other international organizations, most notably the European Union, the OSCE and the United Nations.

Azerbaijan has been following closely the progress of the Council of Europe policy towards neighbouring regions. Since it was launched in Istanbul in 2011, considerable progress has been achieved in deepening of engagement with several countries of the neighboring regions through strengthened political dialogue and agreements over cooperation priorities. As a country located at the crossroads of the continents and enjoying historic ties and strong bilateral relations with these countries, Azerbaijan will continue paying close attention to the development of this policy. The Chairmanship of Azerbaijan intends to support the Council of Europe's efforts in this area through organizing high-level Ministerial conference devoted to the neighborhood policy of the Council of Europe in Baku in September 2014. The conference could provide a valuable forum for exploring the avenues for possible long term engagement of the Council of Europe, taking full account of the recent debates within the Committee of Ministers on possibilities of more institutionalized ties with some countries of the neighborhood. Last but not least, the event could look at the possibilities whether the intercultural dialogue related activities could bring an added value to overall objectives pursued by the policy.

During our chairmanship we will act in close and regular contacts with forthcoming Belgium and Bosnia and Herzegovina chairmanships, with the goal of ensuring continuity and coherence of our activities through advancement of shared priorities in a coordinated fashion.

Throughout this important period the Azerbaijani Chairmanship will work in close coordination with the Secretary General, the Parliamentary Assembly, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities and other institutions to ensure smooth and productive running of the Chairmanship.

We will strive to display maximum level of openness and willingness to reach our common goals and objectives and we will count on your strong support in this important and vital endeavor. 18 events will be held in Azerbaijan over the next 6 months and I extend our kind invitation to you and your colleagues to visit our country during this period.

Thank you for your attention.