Right to compensation for unlawful deprivation of liberty: the legislation of Azerbaijan in the light of international and European standards

The Republic of Azerbaijan is a developing European country which regained its independence following the collapse of the USSR in 1991. As a young country Azerbaijan may face particular challenges with regard to human rights, above and beyond the more mainstream problems. However, it should be stressed that Azerbaijan has striven to improve the situation by enacting substantial legal and institutional reforms, as well as by becoming party to numerous international and regional treaties aimed at protection and promotion of human rights. According to the Constitution of Azerbaijan international treaties to which Azerbaijan is party become an indivisible part of the domestic legislature, and should have direct applicability. However, these treaties should be incorporated into domestic legislation for their better understanding and due application and such incorporation should be applied consistently and continuously, taking into consideration the jurisprudence of the relevant treaty bodies. The paper aims to illuminate the existing situation of ensuring the right to compensation as a procedural guarantee for legitimate deprivation of liberty for the purposes of criminal justice in the Republic of Azerbaijan and to determine the existing challenges. As the right to compensation is one of the core rights of persons deprived of liberty, which, as international standards require, must be ensured for the legitimacy of detention. Particular attention is paid to the compliance of domestic legislation with international and European standards, and the shortcomings, collisions and paradoxes of the national legislative system itself. Given that the relative paucity of legal-scientific research in this field in Azerbaijan, particularly with regard to compliance with international and European standards, this paper seeks to contribute to the existing body of knowledge. *The paper is based on the author’s LLM dissertation submitted to the University of Leeds (2012)