Azerbaijani CC is positive on offered constitutional amendments

The Constitutional Court (CC) of Azerbaijan has given a positive opinion on the amendments of the Constitution offered by the national parliament; on December 24, the Court considered at its plenum a draft Referendum Act "On Amendments and Additions in the Constitution of Azerbaijan" brought by the parliament for legal expertise.

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports that Fikret Babaev, Judge-Reporter of the Constitutional Court, said in his speech that "the accelerated progress in economic and political reforms has brought the issue of improving the Constitution to the agenda of political life."

Another Judge-Reporter Eldar Mamedov has noted that the parliament had made use of Article 153 of the Constitution, prescribing how to initiate changes in the main law. The offered changes assume "increase of the social orientation of the state, stronger defence of human rights, and better operation of supreme bodies of state power, courts and municipalities." As to the draft Referendum Act "On Amendments and Additions in the Constitution of Azerbaijan", it comprises 29 points and assumes 41 amendments and additions in the Constitution.

Ali Guseinov, head of the parliamentary commission on legal policy and state structure, represented the interested party. In his speech he refuted the allegations that the amendments are towards restricting rights and freedoms of citizens. According to his story, when drafting amendments they borrowed experience of some of the EU countries, like Bulgaria and Slovakia. In particular, the Bulgarian experience was used in the offered addition to Article 32 on prohibiting video and photo filming and audio recording without a permit of the respective person. At the same time, Mr Guseinov passed by in silence the proposed exclusion from the Constitution of the provision that restricts election of one and the same person the head of the state by no more than two times.

The CC's statement marks that the draft Referendum Act "On Amendments and Additions in the Constitution of Azerbaijan" does not contradict to the general provisions of the Constitution on democracy and fundamentals of the state and meets Article 155 of the Constitution, which stipulates the issues, which cannot be brought to the referendum. Therefore, the CC has decided that the amendments can be brought to the referendum.

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