Azerbaijan deputy justice minister meets Council of Europe human rights chief

Azerbaijan’s Deputy Justice Minister Togrul Huseynov has met a senior Council of Europe official to discuss judicial co-operation, following years of friction over the country’s human rights record.

Huseynov held talks with Gianluca Esposito, the Council of Europe's Director General of Human Rights and Rule of Law, the Azerbaijani justice ministry announced on 8 July.

The ministry said discussions focused on legal and institutional reforms, including forensic science, probation, the execution of court decisions, and legal education. Both sides reportedly agreed that Council of Europe projects had contributed to domestic reforms.

The meeting comes after representatives from the Council’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) visited Baku in April to discuss the implementation of long-standing recommendations regarding police, prisons, and psychiatric institutions.

That delegation was led by CPT President Alan Mitchell and included executive members who conducted a periodic monitoring visit to Azerbaijan in late 2025. The findings of that monitoring mission were delivered to Azerbaijani authorities in March 2026.

Relations between Baku and the Strasbourg-based human rights body have been severely tested.

In July 2024, the CPT took the exceptional step of issuing a public statement accusing Azerbaijani authorities of an "outright refusal" to co-operate with the committee.

The committee bypassed standard protocol to publish a highly critical 2022 ad hoc report without Baku's consent. Under Council rules, such reports are typically kept confidential unless the host country agrees to their release.

Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry expressed regret at the time, calling the publication an "unprecedented decision", but maintained that the government always took the committee's recommendations into account.

Since joining the Council of Europe in 2001, Azerbaijan has been the subject of numerous adverse rulings by the European Court of Human Rights.

The court has ruled against Azerbaijan in 263 cases, 33 of which involved allegations of torture or inhumane treatment.