Speaker of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova announced at the scheduled parliamentary plenum held under her chairmanship on 5 May that the agenda consisted of 22 items and that İtem I was the annual memorandum by the National Co-ordinator on Combatting Human Trafficking.  

The annual memorandum was brought before the House by First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Seyfulla Azimov who told the law-makers that the human trade, violating the fundamental human rights and liberties and threatening international security, remains one of the most dangerous kinds of transnational organised crime in all its diverse forms and manifestations. The reports issued by international organisations indicate that around 25 million human trade victims were revealed in 2021 and that, globally, 5 out of every 10 of them were adult women and a third of them all were children. The COVID-19 pandemic of the two years past has left millions of people around the world jobless, which has only spurred the human trade risks.  

The efforts made in line with the national strategy of action against human trade and aimed at preventing such crimes as well as at protecting their victims, and the co-operation with civil society as well as international and overseas institutions had been continued within the limitations imposed by the pandemic period last year. The relevant legislative frameworks had been optimised with an eye to the demand of the time, the recommendations of international institutions and the cutting-edge experience in the field. Regulatory by-laws had been drawn up about monitoring the construction sector and the agriculture as well as the services sector – the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Population had put those legal documents together in order to apprehend and discourage human trade and forced labour in the context of fulfilment of the National Action Plan and following the recommendations provided by international organisations. The drafts had been submitted for consideration of the Cabinet of Ministers duly. The legal statuses of the Joint Commission and the Working Group under the auspices of the National Co-ordinator had been reviewed once again, and the drafts laws about reforming those had been drawn up with a view to ensuring that the National Guiding Mechanism for Handling Human Trade Victims was applied more efficiently and that the co-ordination of the anti-crime activities would be made stronger. Besides, the Azerbaijan Republic had applied for becoming a party to the Council of Europe Convention against Trafficking in Human Organs.  

According to Mr Azimov, the necessary measures adopted during the report year had been enlightenment, in view of its pivotal position in the prevention of human trade, also, apprehension of illegal migration and the use of the national territory for human trade transit operations, also, discouragement of early marriages, the overview of waifs as well as truant children, adopted children, children in custody and alieni juris, as well as the foster families. Furthermore, the mass media and online information resources had been monitored for the same purpose. The Ministry of Internal Affairs had arranged almost 700 enlightenment sessions at education facilities as part of the anti-drug propaganda. Besides, the Human Trade Victims Aid Centre, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Education had had their mentoring done up country to tell their audiences of the specific features and forms of this criminal practice, the rehabilitation of its victims and the ways to counter it. The features of the counteraction had been studied at the training sessions and qualification upgrading courses attended by more than 300 senior police and special service officers.  

The goals of the National Action Plan had been reached in the report period as far as definition of the factors behind forced labour and identification of factual and potential forced labourers as well as prevention of such crimes are concerned. The efforts made to eliminate unofficial employment had resulted in employers and employees concluding work contracts; those employers who had had the misfortune of being in breach of the pertaining laws had been fined.  

A certain amount of law enforcement intelligence work had been carried out last year in order to resolve human trade cases and bring culprits to trial. The efforts required to rehabilitate and reintegrate the victims had been in the focus. New mechanisms of prevention and detection had been developed further with reliance upon the relevant international experience.  

The implementation and deployment of modern technologies had taken a large scape in last year’s efforts; those had been furthered with the intent to improve the professionalism of the personnel investigating human trafficking crimes. The to-do list for the coming period includes enhancing proactive crime detection, conducting further staff training sessions and streamlining the legislation as well as the human trade victim indicators, especially, children. Besides, it is planned to compose police intelligence manuals and guides and, last but rather not least, to arrange compensation payment schemes for human trade victims.  

At the same time, it is planned to enhance the social protection of women, children and other potential victims – including those belonging to the vulnerable social strata. It is intended to facilitate the victim shelter and aid centre acceptance procedures, to identify, study and eliminate forced labour risks in the production and services sectors all along the chains leading up to end users, to boost the HR potential of the dedicated police squad, to improve the logistical situation, and so forth.  

Concluding his presentation, First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Seyfulla Azimov thanked the leaders and members of the Milli Majlis alike for their improving the legislative frameworks for combatting human trade and supporting the efforts made to implement the relevant state policy, He also voiced his appreciation of the close co-operation between government officials, civil institutions and media groups.  

Chair of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova remarked that the annual report by the National Co-ordinator had been discussed in every aspect at a joint meeting of the parliamentary committees for human rights, and for human policy and state-building. Then, she gave the floor to the chairman of the Human Rights Committee Zahid Oruj so he could bring forth the committee’s opinion statement regarding the document in hand.  

Zahid Oruj proceeded to expand on the assessment passed on the past period’s systemic changes that had been pronounced at the already-mentioned joint meeting of the committees. The committees had addressed the social roots of human trade, the intra-family factors, social relations, operations of travel companies and those specialising in labour migrants and, last, co-ordination amongst state agencies. Besides, the parliamentary committees had discussed identification of covert propagators and agitators who use smart technologies, the efficiency of criminal extradition proceedings, the causes and the results of child labour, the need in enlightenment, the sources of information tapped for international organisations’ reports and the goals those organisations pursue, the role of wars the world over in the rising number of human trade victims and other important matters.  

With her victory in the 44 days’ Patriotic War, Azerbaijan also contributed to discouragement of human trade both in the region and in the world, in the opinion of Mr Oruj who stressed that abused for illegal settlement, smuggling and trans-border crimes for the three decades of the occupation, the lands of Garabagh were free and clear now.  

The 2021 report of the National Co-ordinator consists of eight sections counting the preamble. They encompass legislation, prevention and enlightenment, theoretical education and practical training, international co-operation, discouragement of forced labour, criminal prosecution and handling human trade victims, and the tasks and statistical data that go with that all. The dynamic statistic on display shows a certain annual rise in the crime numbers that had set in during 2015 in keeping with the general global tendencies. With that, the situation in our country has remained stable and safe percentage-wise. The report is pointing at the close interaction with international organisations in resolving the tasks ahead, according to Mr Oruj.  

In April of the current year, the Cabinet of Ministers modified the rules of the national guiding mechanism for the alleviation of the plight of human trade victims; also, a Joint Commission was put together under the auspices of the National Co-ordinator.  

On the whole, Mr Oruj continued, the efforts directed against human trade made by the State of Azerbaijan which is in the forefront as much as providing citizens with a stable and safe existence and, in general, keeping up stability world-wide, and the annual report by the National Co-ordinator as presented are both satisfactory and acceptable.  

The discussion followed. The parliamentary committee chairman Siyavush Novruzov and the MPs Azay Guliyev, Sahib Aliyev, Vugar Bayramov, Elshan Musayev, Sabina Khasayeva, Arzu Naghiyev, Etibar Aliyev, Razi Nurullayev, Elman Nasirov and Kamila Agayeva found it necessary to let their remarks, considerations and suggestions be heard. They pointed at the high standards to which the annual report had been kept.  

Next, the document in hand was put on vote and noted based on its results.  

The sitting in plenary continued with the chairman of the Agrarian Policy Committee Tahir Rzayev tabling the third reading of the Food Security Law and telling the House that the comments from the previous readings had been considered by the working group, which had then amended the law’s Article 38 accordingly to improve the Bill and the future law. The document had been discussed thoroughly in the third reading at the meeting of the Committee; a favourable conclusion had been drawn eventually, Mr Rzayev was saying.  

The future law is called upon to protect the lives and health of humans and animals alike as much as it is to ensure the safety of food and fodder in order to protect consumers’ rights in this country. The provisions of the draft encompass the state food safety regulation, protection of consumer rights, elaboration and passing of technical by-laws and of general requirements applicable to food and fodder products. It will also deal with the safety of enriched products and, finally, it contains requirements that pertain to genetically-modified organisms and fodder. At the same time, the Bill has in it such articles that concern specific measures of the state food security control, crisis management, the rights and obligations of the food industry subjects and several other subjects.  

The Bill was put on vote and approved in the third reading subsequently.  

The chairman of the Defence, Security and Counter-Corruption Committee Ziyafet Asgarov provided an overview of the amendment to Article 21.1.4-1 of the Law ‘On the Military Duty and Service’, designed to grant a military service determent of up to 3 months and provide broader education opportunities for those conscripts who have passed their first post-graduate exams at military colleges – as broad, that is, as those enjoyed by draft-aged men continuing their education at the listed institutions as well as at the branches of those institutions and in academic organisations.  

The chairman of the other parliamentary committee Siyavush Novruzov found the amendment to be laudable and offered a number of remarks and suggestions of his own. Ziyafet Asgarov gave his comments and then, the Bill was put on vote and passed in one reading only.  

First Deputy Chair of the Milli Majlis/head of the Law Policy and State-Building Committee Ali Huseynli brought up the Bill that contained amendments to the Code of Civil Procedure, the Family Code and the Civil Code, all drawn up in connexion with the effect of the law No 1720-VQD dated 2019 that contained the enacted amendments to the Family Code, and of the law No 1722-VQD dated 2019 that contained the enacted amendments to the Civil Code and to the laws ‘On Children’s Rights’ and ‘On the Social Protection of Orphaned Children and Children Deprived of Parental Care’.  

The amendments are intended to introduce terminological concreteness and clarity into the laws. Namely, the wording ‘the social protection of the population’ will, in the said codices, be replaced with the expression ‘the Social Service’ whereas the wording ‘of the social services offices’ will substitute the currently-used formulations ‘of education and treatment institutions, of the social protection offices and of other pertaining departments’ and ‘of a treatment, educational institution as well as of one of social protection and other analogous departments’.  

The chair of the parliamentary Family, Women’s and Children’s Affairs Committee Hijran Huseynova brought up the Committee’s favourable conclusion about this compendium of amendments.  

After that, the chairman of the Health Committee Ahliman Amiraslanov tabled the draft amendments to the laws ‘On Protection of the Population Health’ and ‘On the Psychiatric Aid’, saying that it had been proposed to substitute the word ‘service’ for the formulation that went ‘a protection system’, and the wording ‘the medical aid’ with the expression ‘the medico-sanitary aid’. In general, though, the amendments are on the harmonising side, according to Mr Amiraslanov.  

Both sets of amendments were voted through their single readings one by one.  

Then came the turn of the Bills lined up for the second reading.  

Two of them, which were interconnected substantively and had arrived at the Parliament having been sent by the President, were presented by Ali Huseynli. Those were the amendment to the Law ‘On the Town of Shusha, the Cultural Capital of Azerbaijan’ introducing the new Article 3-1 to lay down the rules of using the very word of Shusha. Accordingly, the Town of Shusha State Preserve would hold the exclusive rights over the name as cited as well as over the official title ‘Shusha’. At the same time, for the purposes of complete protection of all heritage situated in the town of Shusha, it is proposed to delete the description ‘archaeological’ from the law’s Article 7-5. 

The second set was concerned with the City-Planning and Construction Code as well as to the laws ‘On Business Enterprising’, ‘On Protection of the Historical and Cultural Heritage’, ‘On Physical Education and Sports’, ‘On Culture’ and ‘On Advertising’. 

The chairman of the Economic Policy, Industries and Enterprising Committee Tahir Mirkishili, the chairwoman of the Culture Committee Ganira Pashayeva and the deputy chairman of the Youth and Sports Committee Shahin Ismayilov let it be known that their respective committees were in favour of the amendments.  

Both Bills were voted through the second reading then.  

Vugar Bayramov of the Labour and Social Policy Committee tabled the amendments to the Labour Code. He commented on the remarks made during the first reading and clarified several aspects of the document, adding that the amendments were intended to optimise the labour relations in the country.  

The new Part 5 being added to Article 49 will, once in effect, empower the labour legislation enforcement body to terminate notifications on labour agreements on the force of employees’ requests. At the same time, certain addenda are proposed to Article 74 regarding the grounds for termination of an employment contract in cases beyond the will and control of the parties in each given case. And the amendment to Article 87 of the Code will govern the entries the aforementioned enforcing body makes in employees’ service records based on their own requests following the recognition of the labour agreement as terminated.  

MP Konul Nurullayeva offered certain comments, which were followed by the explanations by Vugar Bayramov, after which the Bill in hand was voted through the second reading.  

Chair of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova announced then that the next four items on the agenda had arrived from the President in one parcel and were akin to each other content-wise.  

First, the chairman of the Labour and Social Protection Musa Guliyev talked about the amendments to the Retirement Pensions Law. There are 43 amendments to 10 articles of the law in question, according to Mr Guliyev who added that all of them were, in essence, positive in nature and were going to improve the pension arrangements for the citizens once enacted. They will also ensure the continued embedment of the social insurance principle within the pensions system whilst easing off the retirement conditions for 17-20 thousand compatriots and, last but not least, providing the legal grounds for a rise in pensions.  

Next, Musa Guliyev talked about the second reading of the draft amendments to the Social Benefits Law’s Articles 5 and 7 following the proposed amendments to Article 14 of the Retirement Pensions Law and being, again, of a syncing nature. When the amendments are enacted, any member of a family in receipt of a pension in view of the loss of a wage earner whilst also entitled to a social benefit will be able to choose either and, in addition to that, also enjoy the right to both. In a word, the Bill’s amendments are going to strengthen the social protection further.  

The head of the Health Committee Ahliman Amiraslanov tabled the amendments to the Oncological Aid Law and the Law ‘On the State Care of Multiple Sclerosis Patients’. The amendments concretise the entitlement of the people suffering from the said diseases to social benefits and retirement pensions, and, too, had been prepared to adjust the said laws to the amendments to the Retirement Pension Law and the Social Benefits Law – ultimately, that is, to strengthen the social protection of the people who suffer from the cited diseases. 

First Deputy Chair of the Milli Majlis/chairman of the Law Policy and State-Building Committee Ali Huseynli, in turn, tabled the second reading of the amendments to the ‘On Serving in the Justice Authorities’, again, meant to align this law with the amendments to the Retirement Pensions Law. The amendments define the pensions of the retired Penitentiary Service officers and their family members as well as of civilians retained by penitentiary institutions for the jobs specified in the list of industries, occupations, positions and indicators with the privileged old-age retirement pensions (the list is sanctioned by the appropriate executive authority). 

There was an intermission in the plenum then, after which the discussion of the tabled matters ensued. Remarks, considerations and suggestions were voiced by the committee chairwoman Ganira Pashayeva and the MPs Tahir Karimli, Ali Masimli, Azay Guliyev, Gudrat Hasanguliyev, Elman Nasirov and Fazail Agamali.  

Deputy Minister for Labour and Social Protection Anar Karimov who was present at the sitting provided some explanations in response to the comments made by the people’s deputies. 

All the four Bills were voted through the second reading one by one.  

Mahir Abbaszade of the Economic Policy, Industries and Enterprising Committee told the House, as he was describing the amendments to the Tax Code, that envisaged a five-year exemption from the profit tax of physical persons’ dividends and interest earnings on shares and bonds IPO-ed in regulated markets, that the exemption would hold with the effect from 1 February 2023 and that it had also been proposed to introduce a unified taxation mechanism for corporate interest returns. 

The House voted for the Bill’s approval in the second reading duly.  

The chairman of the Sciences and Education Committee Bakhtiyar Aliyev came up with the amendments to the General Education Law, which had been discussed thoroughly at the meeting of his Committee, and had been approved and recommended for submission at a plenum.  

According to Mr Aliyev, the Bill would divide the general education institutions into the general-type and boarding ones, and that it would also group them as being of general purpose, of integrated education and of special education. The Bill introduces the relevant concepts. On the whole, the amendments are chiefly to equalise disabled students with non-disabled ones at all the tiers of the education system and offer the former a system of education that would be free of any hurdles. 

The same Bakhtiyar Aliyev then gave an overview of the amendments to the Laws ‘On the (Special) Education for Disabled Persons’ and ‘On Education’, remarking that those two draft sets would harmonise the said laws with the amendments to the General Education Law.  By concretising the types and forms of educational institutions and levelling both laws in the regulatory terms, the two Bills will generate special conditions for joint education of disabled and non-disabled people thus ensuring social adaptation of the former through instilling them with the necessary knowledge, abilities and skills. It is proposed to add the new Article 11-1 to the Law ‘On the (Special) Education for Disabled Persons’ to ensure the practical social integration of the disabled.  

The Bills were commented upon by the MPs Fazil Mustafa, Sevil Mikayilova, Sadagat Valiyeva, Etibar Aliyev and Fazail Agamali. Following Bakhtiyar Aliyev’s responses to them, both drafts were put on vote and approved in the second reading one by one.  

Thus came the turn of the first-reading Bills.  

Bahrouz Maharramov of the Law Policy and State-Building Committee presented the draft amendments to the Law ‘On the Institution of the Orders and Medals of the Azerbaijan Republic’, necessitated by the institution of the new Distinction in Environmental Protection Medal that will be bestowed on Azerbaijani citizens, overseas nationals and apatrides alike in consideration of their active participation in designing and implementing natural protection projects, contribution to objective information activities and popularisation of environment protection efforts and, lastly, for contributions to development and reinforcement of Azerbaijan’s links with international organisations.  

The Bill was voted through the first reading.  

Ali Huseynov told the House about the amendments to the Code of Administrative Procedure that will optimise its Article 38.3 that contemplates suspension of effective lawsuit periods in cases concerned with (refusals to adopt) administrative acts. The draft law suggests suspension of the expiration period (as referred to in Article 38.1 and Article 38.2 of the Code) applied to coercion civil actions or those civil actions that contest anything, where such lawsuits have already been submitted to either central and local executive authority branches or to the councils of appeal of publicly-owned legal entities. The proposed suspension would hold pending the passing of resolutions by the said councils of appeal about such actions.        

This Bill, too, the House voted through the first reading.  

The chairman of the Human Rights Committee Zahid Oruj informed the Parliament about the draft amendments to the Information, Informatisation and Information Protection Law. He mentioned the presidential decree ‘On Certain Measures to Ensure the Safety of the Critical Information Infrastructure’, dated 17 April 2021, that pursued the goals of strengthening the CII complete with the incorporated data systems, as well as of strengthening the information communication networks and the automatic governance systems. The same decree envisages the drafting of a number of regulatory acts in the context of the legal support extended to that field.  

As regards the Bill brought before the House, it is to introduce the notions of the critical information infrastructure as well as of its object and subject. Also, it will identify the body responsible for the CII security, and the same Bill also contains the legal foundations for the applicable procedural rules, according to Mr Oruj.  

An opinion statement regarding that draft law and issued by the Economic Policy, Industries and Enterprising Committee was presented to the House by the committee chairman Tahir Mirkishili.  

All the cyber-attacks of our time are aimed at financial targets and it makes the prevention of the threats emanating from those attacks the cornerstone of the protection of the banking sector and the maintenance of the State Budget’s revenues, according to Mr Mirkishili. A fair amount of work had been done to that end in the country during the expired period; the Head of State had signed off several decrees on the topic, which is in general in the public focus invariably.  

The passing of the law that meets the relevant European standards will transform Azerbaijan into a state where the cybersecurity issues receive the most intense attention in the whole of the CIS. Besides, by passing this law the State will take an important step to maintain its own economic equilibrium as well as the vitality and stability of its banking and financial sector and, furthermore, towards eliminating hazards to the State Budget revenues and protecting the population from serious menaces.  

The Bill, commented by the MPs Nigyar Arpadarai and Etibar Aliyev, was adopted in the first reading eventually.  

The plenum went on.  

Ali Huseynli gave an overview of the amendments to the Code of Administrative Offences envisaging responsibility for violation of the critical information infrastructure security regulations and for either the failure to meet the requirements of the responsible official body, imposed in relation to the said regulation or obstruction of the enforcement of those regulations and pertaining requirements. The amendments envisage specific administrative prosecution measures, besides.  

The positive opinion statements regarding the Bill and issued by the Human Rights Committee and the Economic Policy, Industries and Enterprising Committee were stated by the respective committee chairmen Zahid Oruj and Tahir Mirkishili.  

The Bill was put on vote and approved in the first reading then.  

The chairman of the Committee of Health Ahliman Amiraslanov tabled the draft amendments to the Laws ‘On Protection of the Population Health’, ‘On the Private Medical Practice’, ‘On Lotteries’ and ‘On ‘On Physical Education and Sports’, all devised to align those laws with the Cashless Settlements Law passed on 3 December 2021.  

The relevant favourable opinions of the Youth and Sports Committee and of the Economic Policy, Industries and Enterprising Committee were announced by their corresponding chairmen, that is, Deputy Chair of the Milli Majlis Adil Aliyev and Tahir Mirkishili.  

In the end, the Bill was voted through the first reading.  

As she was tabling the set of amendments to the Law ‘On the Rational Exploitation of Energy Resources and the Energy Efficiency’ before the Milli Majlis, Fatma Yildirim of the Natural Resources, Energy and Ecology Committee let it be known that the goal pursued therein was to optimise the law in question and add specificity to its several articles. Namely, Article 2.1.1 has it that ‘energy’ (energy resources) applies to energy products of all kinds including fuels, renewable energy, electricity  as well as the heat, aquatic and other forms. The word ‘transportation’ had been applied to a number of commodities and fuels (natural gas) and it was proposed to add that word specifically to the law therefore, MP Yildirim said. Also, she continued, it was proposed to cover the in-operation sustenance costs of the Energy Efficiency Fund from its own resources in order to keep it properly operational.  

Comments followed, made by the committee chairman Siyavush Novruzov and the MPs Razi Nurullayev, Aydin Huseynov and Sevinj Huseynova. The chairman of the Natural Resources, Energy and Ecology Committee Sadig Gurbanov responded to the colleagues’ comments and then, the amendments were voted in as tabled in the first reading.  

Ali Huseynli informed the assembly of the set of harmonising and adjusting amendments to the City-Planning & Building Code and the laws ‘On Electricity’, ‘On Gas Supplies’, ‘On Energy’, ‘On the Security of Hydraulic Engineering Installations’ and ‘On the Unity of Measurements’, drawn up in connexion with the enforcement of the above-mentioned Law ‘On the Rational Exploitation of Energy Resources and the Energy Efficiency’, passed on 9 July 2021.  

There were the favourable opinion statements of the Natural Resources, Energy and Ecology Committee and the Economic Policy, Industries and Enterprising Committee. Then, the amendments were approved in the first reading.  

Thus, the Milli Majlis concluded its meeting in plenary held today. 

The Press and Public Relations Department   

The Milli Majlis