The Milli Majlis Labour and Social Policy Committee held a video link-up meeting on 2 July.

Committee Chairman Musa Guliyev announced the agenda as consisting of seven items. Those were:

The draft amendments to the Law ‘On the Rights of the People with Disabilities’;

The draft amendments to the Labour, Civil, Civil Procedural, Family, Criminal, Tax, Sentence Enforcement, Housing, Migration, Administrative Offences and Land codes of the Azerbaijan Republic;

The draft amendments to the laws ‘On the status and Social Protection of the Chernobyl Disaster Liquidators with Damaged Health’, ‘On the Immune Prophylactics of Infectious Diseases’, ‘On the Narcological Service and the Narcological Control’, ‘On the (Special) Education for Persons with Health Limitations’, ‘On the State Care of Diabetes Mellitus Patients’, ‘On Blood and Blood Component Donation, and the Blood Service’, ‘On the State Care of Persons with Hereditary Blood Diseases – Haemophilia and Thalassemia’, ‘On the Targeted State Social Aid’, ‘On Social Benefits’, ‘On the Oncological Aid’, ‘On the Social Service’, ‘On Culture’, ‘On the Compulsory Periodic Paediatric Wellness Checks’, ‘On Preschool Education’, ‘On Employment’ and ‘On Vocational Education’;

The draft amendments to the laws ‘On Perpetuating the Shahid Title and on the Shahid Household Benefits’, ‘On the Social Insurance’, ‘On the Police’, ‘On the Shorter Hours Worked by Certain Civil Servant Categories’, ‘On the Compulsory Insurance of Persons Serving with the Azerbaijan Republic Diplomatic Stations in Foreign Countries and with International Institutions’, ‘On the Insurance Practice’, ‘On the Non-State (private) Security Activity’, ‘‘On the Social Adaptation of Persons Relieved of Penitentiary Sentence Service’ and ‘On the Protection of the Rights and Liberties of Persons Held in Detention Facilities’;

The draft amendments to the laws ‘On the Place of Abode Registration’, ‘On the Status of a Member of the Milli Majlis of the Azerbaijan Republic’, ‘On the Compulsory State Personal Insurance of Military Servicemen’, ‘On Courts of Law and Judges’, ‘On Protection of the Population Health’, ‘On the Adoption of the Military Service Charter’, ‘On the Rights of Children’, ‘On the Motor Traffic’, ‘On the State Protection of Persons Engaged in Criminal Proceedings’, ‘On the Social Protection of Orphans and Children Deprived of Parental Care’, ‘On the Compulsory State Personal Insurance of the Judicial and Law Enforcement Personnel’, ‘On Motorways’, ‘On the Action against Tuberculosis in the Azerbaijan Republic’, ‘On the Psychiatric Aid’, ‘On the Compulsory Insurance Classes’ and ‘On the State Care of Multiple Sclerosis Patients’;

And the draft amendments to the laws ‘On the Civil Service’, ‘On the State Duty’, ‘On Execution’, ‘On the Youth Policy’, ‘On the Distribution of Narcotic Drugs, Psychotropic Substances and their Precursors’ and ‘On Physical Culture and Sports’.

As agreed unanimously, the amendments identical in nature and contents were discussed together. The relevant information brief came from Committee Chairman Musa Guliyev who said that the amendments and addenda concerning 60 laws in total had to do with the fulfilment of the Azerbaijan Republic President’s decree enacting the 2018 Law ‘On the Rights of the People with Disabilities’.

Discarding the orthodox disability degrees used in practice heretofore in favour of percentages of health-related ability and bodily function loss for more accurate definition of disability and certain assessment of retained abilities is the principal innovation. This innovation, then, is expected to lead to determining the rehabilitation potential in each given case.

Head of the Social Legislation Department of the Milli Majlis Staff Adil Valiyev informed the assembled in detail of the tabled Bills. He said that those drafts, which had been submitted to the Milli Majlis as a legislative initiative of the President of the Azerbaijan Republic, also envisaged the implementation of the disability defining criteria introduced by the WHO. The amendments and addenda at issue are going to promote more objective disability establishment; the relevant international experience had been analysed as they were in the making, Mr Valiyev emphasised. The modifications propose the replacement of the words ‘a disability degree’ with the expression ‘a bodily function loss percentage’ and of the wording ‘the I, II and III degrees’ with the replacement edit ‘missing bodily functions by 31-100 per cent’. Furthermore, the language ‘children under the age of 18 with health-induced disabilities’ is to be replaced with the formulation ‘disabled persons under the age of 18’.

First Deputy Chair of the Milli Majlis and Chairman of the Law Policy and State-Building Committee Ali Huseynli and Chairman of the Human Rights Committee Zahid Oruj underlined the significance of the new approaches to disability definition. They further stressed that the disabled persons’ interests should be paramount in the application of the new standards. Both committee chairmen touched on the urgency of keeping the disability benefits well-targeted and their appointment governed by social justice, also, on the timeliness of the use of the relevant international experience and standards and of improving the quality of the services and the citizens’ satisfaction with them.

The MPs Soltan Mammadov, Jala Ahmadova, Kamal Jamalov, Aziz Alakbarov and Aghil Mammadov voiced their opinions and suggestions. They welcomed the arrival in the national legislation of the progress norms modelled after the international standards and rooted in the appropriate positive experience.

Deputy Minister for Labour and Social Protection Anar Aliyev and Head of the Disability Issues Department at the same ministry Sabir Gojayev who had been invited to join the remote meeting shed light on some issues pinpointed by the MPs and answered their questions.

In the end, the Labour and Social Policy Committee members recommended that all the seven items on the agenda of the meeting should be brought before the Milli Majlis at a plenary sitting.

The online session was also participated by the MPs Rauf Aliyev, Jala Aliyeva, Vugar Bayramov, Sattar Mehbaliyev, Arzu Naghiyev, Ziyad Samadzade, Jabi Guliyev and Naghif Hamzayev as well as other officials.

The Press and Public Relations
Department The Milli Majlis