RIGHTS, FREEDOMS AND PR

The UN General As-sembly has declared 2009 the Internati-onal Year of Human Rights Learning. This means that the year is passing under the aegis of the defence of human rights, the basis of the knowledge of one's democratic rights. Of course, the world still has much to do to ensure that people know their rights and know how and where to defend them and trust the legal system. What can the justice system, the media and non-governmental organizations do to inspire popular trust in legal institutions? What contribution can general education institutions, in particular schools, make to ensure the continuity of the legal process in society? These questions are of concern not only to us, but to states with deep-seated democratic traditions. We put these questions to Salala Hasanova, doctor of philology and head of the NGO, Promoting the Development of Links with the Public. 

- Why do you think 2009 was declared the International Year of Human Rights Learning? 

- I think this means that there is a problem of a lack of public information about their rights not only in post-Soviet countries but in the world as a whole. I became convinced of this when I took part in an international conference, The Public and the Legal Process, held last May in Tbilisi with the support of the German government's organization to support technical cooperation, GTZ. The common thread running through the presentations of the chairmen of Berlin's Supreme Court and the regional courts of Linz, Gechingen and Brandenburg was the idea that the concept of the law-governed state must be thoroughly and constantly reinforced in the public consciousness. 

Strange as it may seem to us, the German public is not fully provided with widespread, accessible information about the importance of rights and a law-governed state. This is a priority for German justice - judges and prosecutors have to take part in the legal education of the public, go to schools and meet people at open days. The conceptual approach to developing and supporting the image rests on judges boosting confidence in the justice system in their workplace. The rational Germans presumably know that public opinion begins in small circles where people get together to share their opinions openly. That's why everything is done to ensure that the losing side does not leave the courtroom embittered and a recollection remains of a welcoming and objective judge. This experience can be projected to our reality. In Azerbaijan 70,000 legal cases are considered every year of which 56,000 are civil cases. This means that 56,000 people remain dissatisfied, for one of the sides has to lose. These actions are targeted at this category. 

- Azerbaijan's intensive integration into the world community and the strengthening of strategic partnership with the major powers of the world make relevant the objective of forming and supporting the political image of the country. This depends to a considerable degree on dedication to democratic values and especially to the legal defence of citizens.  

- Yes, you're right. World public attention is now focused not only on economic processes in our region and in Azerbaijan in particular but on reforms of public law. The country's political agenda, its place in the international political community, is an important issue.

Azerbaijan has been working with the Council of Europe since 2004 on improving the justice and legal system. This August the president carried out personnel reforms in the courts system which are also targeted at making the legal system more effective. Reforms of the system were stepped up after the presidential decree on applying the law on the modernization of the courts system of 19 January 2006. As there are four judges for every 100,000 of the population, the decision was taken to increase the number of judges by 50 per cent. According to information from the ombudsman's office and international organizations, the majority of complaints they received from the public last year concerned problems in the courts. Social surveys show that the public think judges the most corrupt. I think that stereotypes have come into play here rather than specific facts. The point is that most citizens do not know the law or their rights and, worst of all, do not try to find out about them. For example, in August last year the media reported that a joint working group on reinforcing international human rights standards in Azerbaijan was operating a hot line in Baku. And what do you think? In three months just 200 people contacted them. We should stress that 40 per cent of them received real help. And according to their data, 46 per cent of complaints did not concern the courts but the violation of property rights by the executive authorities. Only 22 per cent complained about the department for the execution of court decisions and 10 per cent about violations of human rights. It follows that there is an area of work still to be done as part of the International Year of Human Rights Learning in order to bring the knowledge of the average Azerbaijani to the standards of democratically developed countries, where citizens are accustomed to taking an interest in the work of state structures, including the third estate, which has been created to protect their basic rights.

At the epicentre of public life, the legal system is a litmus paper to reveal the burning problems of different social groups and, as a consequence, draws conclusions about the level of the development of democracy in the country. This is why during Azerbaijan's intensive integration into the progressive world community it is important not only to raise but to resolve the issue of the attitude of society towards the justice system.

I should say that world experience shows that the road to a truly independent justice system is long. Even America still has problems over the rights of citizens in economic and social life. A couple of years ago, a US commission on equal opportunities in employment reported that 30 per cent of the appeals they received were complaints about sex discrimination.

- What do you think is the most effective PR method to give the national justice system a positive image? 

- As a rule, every PR campaign consists of two important components - a clearly worked-out idea and technique. In modern PR practice these techniques are called modules. They include research, action, communication and assessment. Professional PR managers first decide the format and order of events, then their content. In other words, PR is not done after the event, it is always a system of preventative measures which considers the next and all subsequent steps. It is relevant here to apply German experience again.

Rights Days, which were held as Open Days, were an important part of the German PR system to reinforce trust in the justice system. As a whole, Europe has come to the clear conclusion that the courts must reveal their inner workings to society. The motivation is that potentially anyone could be involved in a court case so from the outset it is important to create trust and gain a positive reputation in the public consciousness. At the conference, leading figures in the German justice system asked why hide beneath a cloak of secrecy and in so doing leave room for distorted interpretations, if the courts have something to show - premises, equipment, employees, a working system, experience, etc.

Every court in turn holds an open day once every two years as this requires a great deal of work and expenditure. The preventative stage of the PR programme includes an advertising campaign, interactive opinion poll on the Internet and hot lines. Citizens are informed in advance that on that day judges will not answer questions about current cases and will not get involved in discussions about completed cases. As a rule, several thousand people attend these events as they are held at the end of the week on a non-working day. Plans for role plays are carefully prepared in advance in which real judges take part. In some courts musical or theatre groups of judges and prosecutors are created especially to perform for the public.

The aim of these PR programmes is to bring the focus of justice closer to the views of the public and present the people who work in the justice system as kind people who can and should be trusted. So in Germany new stereotypes are being created, thanks to which the justice system is perceived as a part of the state which citizens should rely on.

- I remember that in 2007 the courts held open days in Baku and the regions of the country. 

- Yes, but because of a lack of PR, they were formal and did not produce the expected effect. But since you have touched on this, I would like to note in particular one thing. In 2003 the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe together with the European Commission decided to hold a European Day on Citizens' Justice in order to bring the courts closer to the people. To reinforce the importance of the day a prize, the Crystal Scales, was instituted, in which the Council of Europe and European Commission commend innovative practice in the courts in conducting civil legal procedures. This day was marked in style in Germany in 2007. It is worth noting that Azerbaijan was in the top 10 countries to join the programme of events and ceremonies together with the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Italy, Cyprus, Ukraine, the Czech Republic and Estonia. I think this is quite a strong argument in favour of our country's commitment to democratic values.

 - Then let's continue the list and remind readers that on 18 June 2008 World Human Rights Day was marked for the first time in Azerbaijan. 

- That was marvellous, and remember the international-level events held at that time at which incontrovertible arguments were heard in favour of Azerbaijan's commitment to the international system to protect human rights. Tens of thousands of citizens were amnestied and the number of prisoners went down to 13,000, the state concept to support media development was confirmed, one-off financial assistance was given to the editorial offices of leading newspapers and news agencies and public control over government activity was strengthened. According to the concept of state support for non-governmental agencies, in 2008 around 200 NGOs received grants for projects aimed at developing civil society.

- But some international organizations seem not to notice any of this and try to lower our country's human rights ratings. 

- There's nothing surprising about this, since although we have a powerful arsenal of positive examples, there is no PR concept to make them popular. What is PR? It's a system to promote interests. A system! Since throughout this conversation I've been referring to German experience, I'll recall the worlds of the great reformer who united Germany, Bismarck. He said: "It's not intentions that are important but potential." In other words, if there is potential, it will boost the intention. President Ilham Aliyev has summed up neatly both the intentions and potential of sovereign Azerbaijan: "We have chosen the path of democracy not under pressure from anyone. We understand that without the democratization of society the major economic projects we envisage cannot be successful. This path is our strategic choice." If we had a system, then this great thesis would be on everyone's lips. It's not a slogan but a logical algorithm.

I'll cite another example. On 28 December 2006 the National Action Plan to Protect Human Rights in the Azerbaijan Republic was confirmed by presidential decree in order to continue the reforms in the area of human rights. The actions envisaged in the plan cover 48 areas and set concrete objectives to 31 structures. They include pure PR to promote the ideas of rights protection in society - competitions, festivals, distributing printed publicity material amongst the public and the creation of a specialist library. Various state structures did work as part of this document. The Education Ministry held drawing and poetry competitions on Human Rights and You and for a poster on the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Resource centres for young people have been set up in 24 districts of the country. In summer 2008 the ombudsman's office held a human rights month, in which educational institutions took an active part. But these events are intermittent and do not cover large sections of the population. Ask focus groups in institutions of higher education, state structures and major companies and I can assure you that a miserable percentage will know about the existence of this national plan. And the operation of the systems depends on individuals being informed. This requires first of all tactics without theatricality and demonstrativeness. This will prompt a response, trust, harmony, accord, common interests and mutual understanding. In a word, everything that is the essence of public relations. The dominant link with the public, which differentiates PR from advertising and marketing, is the communications system - sending reports, receiving reports from the public and properly understanding their contents, getting information from the public that the report has been received and understood. No link should be missing from this chain or there will be no result!

- How do you think image can be managed?

- Some PR theorists see image as communication as it includes information targeted at different audiences. From this point of view, the development of image can be managed. Planning the development of image inside the country requires a clear knowledge of the expectations of different social groups, while the external image of the country is created from the focused opinions not only of social groups but influence groups. Such influence groups as human rights activists, opposition and independent media create opinion on the human rights situation. And, unfortunately, most of them have a negative bent. It would be appropriate to give them a word of warning by citing Pushkin's quotation on tsarist Russia: "Of course, I thoroughly despise my fatherland, but I do not like it if a foreigner shares my feelings." Local experts and some media try to make international organizations think worse about Azerbaijan than it really is. Although to give some experts their due, in summing up 2008 they described the human rights situation as stable. It was noted in particular that for the first time in the history of Azerbaijan convicts serving sentences of imprisonment had been released to attend the funerals of close relatives. This created a positive precedent in the country, when not only the restrictive functions of laws are applied. Human rights are a multi-vector area and include the rights of forced migrants and refugees. I would like to ask radical human rights activists on issues of the press why they do not make as much effort to ram home to international organizations the point that more than 100,000 children born in refugee camps are deprived from birth of their rights because of Armenia's aggression.

Unfortunately, there is inconsistency in media assessments of the human rights situation. I have gathered several files of material showing what different opinions newspapers hold on various issues or events. For example, in February and December 2008 the Council of Europe's commissioner for human rights, Thomas Hammerberg, assessed steps to protect human rights in Azerbaijan as positive overall. However, articles on the subject in some independent newspapers "forgot" to mention this and the whole situation was presented in a negative light. Others dress up only the positive facts in nauseating tones of tub-thumping patriotism. Here's another example. A regional conference, Justice and the Supremacy of the Law in the South Caucasus, was held in November last year. The Council of Europe made recommendations to countries in the region in two areas - training personnel and improving the system of higher justice councils. This is normal. Nevertheless, opposition media and unfriendly NGOs presented this as a sign of poor work.

Much depends on how information is presented. An impressive figure was cited recently - the European Court had accepted 1,077 complaints from Azerbaijan. But it turned out that 500 of the complaints had been made by Armenians who used to live in Azerbaijan and 500 by citizens of our country who had brought suits for compensation from the Armenian side. In fact this is just 77 suits over the decisions of local courts. Meanwhile, the media caused a fuss over the 1,077. The state won 23 and lost 11 cases in the European Court. Why are the cases won not reported in the press? I might add that Turkey, Greece, Romania and Russia lead in terms of payment on human rights suits brought to the European Court. And we are talking about millions. According to figures up to May 2008, Azerbaijan had paid just 42,000 euros.

- So much depends on the position of the press?

- Exactly, sometimes you get the impression that the newspapers, especially the popular ones, are deliberately taking a critical position in reporting on human rights and avoiding the positive side of the story.

In June 2008, a UN Council on Human Rights was set up and a representative of Azerbaijan, Elcin Amirbayov, was chosen as one of the four vice-presidents. He was also appointed a special rapporteur for the council. This means that our country's position in this area is not so bad after all. Nevertheless, this noteworthy fact was not widely reported. Moreover, preventative measures are needed too. A whole arsenal of arguments has accumulated on substantial progress in human rights. In three years around 100 of our judges have been punished, more than 30 were removed from their posts and administrative measures have begun against 50 judges in the past two years, including for corruption. In the past three years around 10 judges had their powers stopped ahead of time by presidential decree. Appeal courts have been set up in the country's regions, so judicial red tape has decreased. On transparency, court verdicts are placed on the courts' web sites. Civil law in the country is being brought into line with the European Convention. Thanks to the joint efforts of the Justice Ministry and NGOs, a collection of poetry written by prisoners was printed and launched in spring last year. So the authorities certainly do not have to justify themselves after the latest critical report from international structures. Simply a conceptual system is needed to promote positive experience on the basis of flexible, modern techniques. 

The media inconsistency can be seen in different newspapers highlighting different figures. Human rights activists said in the press that the European Court had accepted 44 appeals against the Azerbaijani state. The chairman of the Supreme Court was more specific and said that this included cases both won and lost. These things cannot be ignored. In similar cases press services need to react promptly and the figures should be corrected. Confused information always leads to disinformation. And at the end of the day all this has an influence on the country's image.