As every year, The European Day of Justice was celebrated in Azerbaijan on October 25, 2018. On that day, in courts of our Republic the “open door” day was announced, among the courts staff extended discussions and talks were held as well as the speeches in press, meetings in educational organizations and other events were organized. To be more precisely, the events on celebration of the European Day of justice covered 5 regional courts with the 78 district courts, which are under the jurisdiction of mentioned regional courts as well as 6 administrative and economic courts, 5 military courts and 4 particularly serious crimes courts. In total, the events were held in 93 courts around the country.

In these events the citizens were closely introduced to the justice implementation system, the country’s judicial and legislative reforms as well as modernization of courts infrastructure, new information and communication systems and other innovations.

Also, the citizens were explained about the mechanisms of human rights protection and other such issues. During the informative meeting with students and lawyers the knowledge on history and the role of the European Day of justice were provided.

One of the goals was also to implement activities on increase of awareness of CEPEJ’s reports on justice effectiveness in a society. Appropriate people (Administration of Ministry of justice, Judicial-legal Counsel, judges, court officials, students and others) was informed about the reports.

For example, the electronic copies of CEPEJ’s reports have been disseminated among the management of Ministry of Justice and Judicial Council and others. Also, some examples and facts as well as best practices (statistic data from comparative analysis with other countries, social status of judges, etc.) from these reports are used by the Ministry of Justice to boost the effectiveness of justice. The main parts of CEPEJ’s report were already translated to Azeri language and also provided to persons in charge. The full translations of these reports are planned to be finalized soon and published on the web-sites of courts and the Ministry of Justice. The topic on CEPEJ report will be included into educational curriculums of the Justice Academy and it is planned to organize briefings on this matter. Including this topic to the study program of the Justice Academy can help the audience better understand the final goal of conducted judicial reforms as well as allow them to see practical outcome and tangible results of such reforms and importance of cooperation with international organizations.