Successive measures are being taken to ensure the rights of minors and women prisoners, who are a vulnerable group of the population, as well as to effectively organize the correctional process (resocialization), leisure and social adaptation; in this direction, conjointly with the applicable state agencies and public legal entities, civil society and international organisations vocational training programs, training courses and other educational activities are being organised in order to improve convicts’ knowledge and skills giving due consideration to their wishes.   

On December 31, 2023 – World Azerbaijanis Solidarity Day and New Year’s Eve, the Ministry of Justice, with the support of the Institute of Law and Human Rights and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), held a presentation of the “Virtual Law and Human Rights Library”(“Law and Human Rights Virtual Library”) at Women’s Correctional Facility No.4.

At the event, the importance of creating a virtual library in a newly-built contemporary penitentiary establishment already brought into service last year, the construction of which was aimed at improving the conditions of detention of women offenders as a part of ongoing reforms in the penitentiary sector, was highlighted. It was noted that prisoners who make use of the library fund functioning within the aforementioned facility on a regular basis will gain access to hundreds of digital training materials in the scope of law and human rights. It will also serve towards their education, enlightenment and effective leisure activities.   

Mr. Mahammad Guluzade, Chair of the Board of the Institute of Law and Human Rights, informed the event participants about the “Virtual Law and Human Rights Library” dedicated to the 100^th anniversary of Great Leader Heydar Aliyev created on the Institute’s website in May of 2023 and expressed profound gratitude to the Ministry of Justice for its support in launching an offline version of the library in the penitentiary. He also noted that more than 250 books, textbooks, articles and reports on law and human rights presented by the Azerbaijani legal scholars in 3 languages are currently in the possession of the virtual library.

Mrs. Leila Fathi, The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Representative, stressed that virtual library, which is one of the most successfully managed UNDP projects, has been of great benefit to tens of thousands of people in a short time.     

At the event, with a view to ensuring the proper functioning of the library within the institution, 7 laptops were donated by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).