Further Support to the penitentiary reform in Azerbaijan

This 24-month project is co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe in cooperation with the main project partners, namely the Penitentiary Service and the Main Medical Department of the Ministry of Justice of Azerbaijan and other national stakeholders interested in penitentiary reform.

With this Joint Project the Council of Europe will assist the Azerbaijani authorities in the process of enhancing human rights protection of sentenced persons in Azerbaijan in line with the Council of Europe standards, in particular those of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT).

The JP SPERA-2 focuses on three areas:

effective prison management,
the provision of healthcare in prisons and
the reintegration of prisoners in line with European standards and best practices. This component involves the participation of civil society actors.

The JP SPERA-2 has an overall project budget of EUR 773 940 co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe.

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Back NGOs will provide psycho-social support and legal aid to ex-offenders in Azerbaijan

@ Council of Europe

On 11 May 2020, a seminar was organised for the Azerbaijani NGOs that received grants to implement reintegration programmes in order to support released prisoners.

The seminar raised the participants’ capacity as regards the provision of legal aid to the ex-offenders to address legal issues upon release. The practical challenges linked to psychological and psycho-social support to help social reinforcement and behavioural change were also discussed.

This second seminar fulfilled the preparation cycle of the selected NGOs to implement the grants effectively. Therefore, the NGOs are ready to start their activities which will be monitored by the CoE.

This activity was organised within the framework of the Joint Programme – “Further support to the Penitentiary Reform in Azerbaijan - 2” (SPERA 2), co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe.

Azerbaijan 12 May 2020