IIMDD IPA CIS Baku Office Held Conference “Role of State and Public Institutions in Democratization of Society”

Online Conference was initiated by the IIMDD IPA CIS Baku office. The event brought together the MPs, leaders of political parties, public persons and academics of the Azerbaijan Republic, experts from the Russian Federation, Heads of the IPA CIS Council Secretariat, the IIMDD IPA CIS and its offices in the Kyrgyz Republic and the Republic of Moldova. 

Deputy Secretary General of the IPA CIS Council – Plenipotentiary Representative of the Milli Mejlis of the Azerbaijan Republic Aidyn Jafarov welcomed the participants of the Conference on behalf of Secretary General – Head of the IPA CIS Council Secretariat Dmitriy Kobitskiy. 

Deputy Head of the IPA CIS Council Secretariat – Director of the IIMDD IPA CIS Ivan Mushket emphasized the relevance of discussing the role of a state and public institution, taking into account historical experience and today’s reality. 

Director of the IIMDD IPA CIS Baku office Elman Imamaliyev spoke about the role of political elite for building the democratic state, the importance of professional personnel with the high political and legal culture working for the benefit of all the citizens. 

Member of the Milli Mejlis of the Azerbaijan Republic, Vice-Rector of the Ganja State University Parvin Kerimzade spoke about the satisfaction of citizens as the main goal of effective public administration. 

Member of the Milli Mejlis of the Azerbaijan Republic, lecturer at the Baku State University Ulviya Agaeva in her speech addressed the question of the development of public institutions in the Azerbaijan Republic. 

IIMDD expert, professor at St. Petersburg State University Stanislav Tkachenko highlighted the issue of assessing the democratization process in the CIS countries. According to him, some international observers work without a deliberate examination of the history and political economy of a particular country. Stanislav Tkachenko noted that the IPA CIS aims to organize a dialogue and experience exchange in the field of democratic transition – first of all between parliaments, but also between youth organizations, civil society structures and the expert community of the Commonwealth countries.

IIMDD expert, professor, Honored Worker of Science of the Russian Federation Roman Romashov spoke about the IIMDD collective position regarding the understanding of a modern democracy.

Vice-Rector of Azerbaijan Technical University Subhan Namazov emphasized that one of the main means to build civil society should be the further democratization of education. 

Deputy Chairman of the United Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan Elchin Mirzabeyli addressed the problems of a formalistic approach in shaping of the public councils in local executive bodies. 

Head of the Department of Social Education of Azerbaijan Technical University, professor Shikar Gasimov noted that over the past years, the educational level of the municipality members had improved greatly, more youth and women were present in local authorities.  

Vice-President of the National Forum of Azerbaijani NGOs, Chairperson of the International Dialogue and Development Alliance Nushaba Mammadova emphasized that since 2018, elections in Azerbaijan had been held in the framework of international standards. According to her, this is one of the important qualities of the reforms in the country aimed at democratization and modernization of public and political life. 

Head of the Centre for Global Problems of Regional Security, political scientist Gabil Huseynov expressed the opinion that Azerbaijan almost completely distanced itself from the Soviet political system. The Republic develops the civil society, which assumed some functions of the management system in terms of realization of civil initiatives on a wide range of issues – from human rights to multiculturalism.