On 19 May, the Council of Europe Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) published their report on corruption prevention in respect of the parliamentarians, judges and prosecutors in Azerbaijan.
The GRECO report concluded that out of 21 recommendations, Azerbaijan had implemented 14 of those on a satisfactory level, 4 had been partially implemented and 3 had not been implemented at all. In their general comments, the Azerbaijani authorities refer to the dissolution of Parliament, on 4 December 2019, and the general elections, held on 9 February 2020 that impeded the implementation of several recommendations relating to members of Parliament.
One of the recommendations that Azerbaijan fails to implement is to quickly define the form of income declarations for MPs and to exclude the confidentiality of declarations. Another unimplemented recommendation is that the mandate of the Judicial and Legal Council does not explicitly include clauses on the protection and strengthening of the independence of the judiciary. It was noted that the government has not provided any new information in this regard. “GRECO welcomes the extension of the term of service of the Judicial and Legal Council (JCL) in order to protect the independence of the judiciary. However, GRECO regrets the lack of progress in implementing the second part of the recommendation, i.e., ensuring that at least half of the members of the JCL are elected or appointed by direct vote of their colleagues and that the president is elected from among the JCL judges,” the report said.
GRECO also recommended that amendments to the Law on the Prosecutor's Office should be considered to exclude any undue influence and interference in the activities of the Prosecutor's Office during criminal investigations. “The organization, abolition and basic organizational structure of all prosecutors offices should be defined by law. GRECO welcomes the amendments to the Law on the Prosecutor's Office, which to some extent limit the powers of the President and Parliament to "control" the activities of the Prosecutor's Office. However, GRECO is disappointed at the lack of progress in the organization, abolition, and regulation of all prosecution services,” the report emphasised. GRECO also expressed its belief that the "unnecessary influence of the executive authority over the prosecution service remains a very problematic situation and the issue of disclosure of assets linked to the prosecution service has not been resolved at all.”
The report concluded that only a modest progress can be noted in the implementation of the recommendations addressed to Azerbaijan. With respect to members of parliament, Azerbaijan has taken concrete steps to address the shortcomings identified by GRECO. Progress has been made regarding the framework of public consultations on draft legislation, and the Law on Rules of Ethical Conduct of Deputies has been adopted. However, there is still a pressing need to establish an effective system of asset disclosure regarding members of parliament, as this matter has not been addressed.
Regarding judges, measures have been taken to increase the role of the Judicial Legal Council (JLC) in the selection of judges, to introduce training on integrity related matters and counselling on ethics, and, as it appears, a methodology for judicial appointments. However, the composition of the JLC needs to be changed to strengthen the role of the judiciary within this body, so that the JLC is composed of most judges directly elected or appointed by their peers and is chaired by a judge. Further, the JLC should be involved in the appointment of all categories of judges. Finally, the transparency remains lacking as regards judges’ asset disclosure.
As to prosecutors, GRECO notes that tangible steps have been taken in several areas, notably as regards disciplinary offences, the Code of Ethical behaviour, and the periodic appraisal system. Further, a new set of criteria has been introduced for recruiting law enforcement officers, the rules on competitive selection of prosecutors have been extended to cover senior prosecutors, and new guidelines have been adopted on accessory activities. Improvements have also been made regarding training on integrity-related matters. However, the undue influence of the executive over the Prosecutor’s Office remains highly problematic and the issue of asset disclosure regarding prosecutors has not been addressed at all.
