The Council of Europe Office in Baku continues assisting the rehabilitation and reintegration of ex-offenders in Azerbaijan. From 28 to 31 July 2021, the project team visited Sheki to assess the status of implementation of the two grants awarded to Uluchay Social-Economic Innovation Centre for: a business mentoring of ex-offenders and provision of free legal aid services to ex-offenders. The project team attended both a business mentoring workshop and a legal aid session to a group of 40 released persons and participated at the stakeholder’s meeting focused on the challenges faced by this vulnerable group upon release and possible solutions.

The business mentoring workshop focused on generating ideas to set up small businesses with an ultimate goal to support ex-offenders in starting their businesses. The legal aid session brought together released persons who wanted to receive these legal aid services on a broad variety of issues. It was provided by two lawyers.

The visit was organised within the EU/CoE Joint Project "Support to the Penitentiary Reform in Azerbaijan" (JP SPERA-2), which is designed to promote effective prison management, health care in prisons and assist the reintegration of ex-offenders.