On October 12, 2011 at the Institute on Human Rights of Azerbaijan NAS the International scientific conference "Human right to health: legal and ethical issues of health service" dedicated to the 20th anniversary of Azerbaijan state independence was held.

Director of the Institute on Human Rights, MP, and Ph.D. in Law Mustafayeva Ayten opened the conference noting the great achievements and reforms that have taken place in Azerbaijan's health service recently thanks to special attention and care of the Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva.

The objective of all conducted reforms for the country's leadership is to increase quality of medical care and health services to guarantee the Azerbaijan citizens the constitutional right to health. In this regard, public discussion of professional violations made by medical personnel at work, improvement of legal documents in this area, according to experts and scientists in health law, is an essential tool to improve the system of health service, prevent future law violations and elements of the careless attitude to obligations and, ultimately, to improve health services. 

Deputy of Milli Majlis, Ph.D. in Political Sciences Pashayeva Ganira made a speech on how the Azerbaijan national legislation regulates the relations between the citizens and health system and the responsibility for violations occurred in the medical field. 

She spoke about the legal and ethical aspects, medical malpractice and its impact on public perception in cases of impunity. 

At the conference Head of World Association for Medical Law, Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Administration, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, USA, Professor of Law Dean Harris made the key presentation on social classification of various professional violations in the health care system.

He explained to the audience the reasons why health systems should respond to such violations, and gave examples how different countries regulate these issues. Professor noted that, in the opinion of international experts, keeping silence on these problems and their impunity lead to such consequences as the loss of the dynamic development of standards and quality of medical care; loss of public’s confidence in the health care system; it can lead to situations when citizens prefer to go abroad to be treated and, in some countries to the loss of citizens’ confidence in the legal system of their country, which is unable to compensate for damages received from health care system. He highly estimated Azerbaijan present progressive legislation and expressed satisfaction with the discussions. 

In conclusion, Deputy Director for Science of the Institute on Human Rights, MD, Prof. Vugar Mammadov made the report on "Development of Medical Law in Azerbaijan as a response to modern challenges". 

Deputies of Milli Majlis, representatives of the Academy of Sciences, experts from international organizations and embassies, Ministry of Health, universities, experts in law, medicine and mass media attended the conference.