In the period of present-day development of Azerbaijan, the strengthening of efforts in the field of building of the legal state and protection of human rights is determined as one of the main directions of the state policy.

During the past years the Republic of Azerbaijan has developed cooperation with the influential international bodies operating in the sphere of human rights, has joined to more than 50 international documents in the area of human rights protection and achieved serious results in fulfilling the international commitments in this field.

Based on the decree of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan signed on 18 June 1998 within the framework of the state program on protection of human rights, legislation and institutional reforms have been implemented. Based on the democratic principles of fair court examination new bodies have been founded, like new court system, constitutional control, commissioner on human rights, the activities of law enforcement bodies has been improved, the activities of NGOs and mass media have expanded, effective protection mechanisms in guaranteeing of human rights have been formed.

Currently the new stage of development of Azerbaijan stipulates the continuation of consistent reforms in the area of human rights protection. For the forthcoming years, to guarantee the compliance of normative legal acts of the Republic of Azerbaijan related to human rights with the international standards the following tasks are determined: drafting and implementation of a new cooperation strategy with international organizations, improvement of the activities of state bodies from the point of view of guaranteeing human rights, stimulation of scientific and analytical work, widening of legal education activities, development on inter-relations between the state and civil society.

Considering guaranteeing of the human and civil rights and freedoms as a nation-wide task in the Republic of Azerbaijan and keeping in mind the priorities determined by the UN "Millennium development goals" and by the Third Summit of the Council of Europe in the field of human rights protection, democracy and rule of law, to expand the activities in this sphere, I decree:

1.To approve the National Action Plan on the Republic of Azerbaijan on Protection of Human Rights (see attached).

2. To charge the executive power bodies of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and recommend the courts and the Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Azerbaijan, while applying the normative-legal acts to increase control over compliance of these acts with the legislation of the Republic of Azerbaijan in the sphere of human rights protection.

З.То recommend Milli Mejlis of the Republic of Azerbaijan, while drafting and passing the laws to follow the human rights and freedoms reflected in the Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan and in the international documents to which Azerbaijan joined and to provide compliance of normative - legal acts of the Republic of Azerbaijan with the international law documents.

4. To recommend to the Constitutional Court and Supreme Court of the Republic of Azerbaijan, to provide application in the court practice the propositions of international documents regulating the protection of human rights.

5. To charge the executive bodies stated in the National Action Plan to engage the local non-governmental organizations in the implementation of the National Action Plan.

6. To charge the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Azerbaijan to solve all the issues arising from this Decree.

7. This Decree comes into force since the date of signing.

Ilham Aliyev
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan

Baku, 28 December 2006