Permanent Mission of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the UN Office and other International Organizations GENEVA Ref: 0192/12/21/23 The Permanent Mission of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the United Nations Office and other International Organizations in Geneva presents its compliments to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and has the honor to transmit herewith the information by the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan for the report on steps taken by States to combat intolerance, negative stereotyping, stigmatization, discrimination, incitement to violence and violence against persons, based on religion or belief to be submitted by the United Nations Secretary-General to the United Nations General Assembly at its seventy-sixth session. The Permanent Mission of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the United Nations Office and other International Organizations in Geneva avails itself of this opportunity to renew to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights the assurances of its highest consideration. Enclosure: 5 pages I " Geneva, 14 April 2021 Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights GENEVA " Non-official translation INFORMATION of the State Committee on Religious Associations of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SeRA) on the work done to prepare a report to be submitted to the 76th session of the UN General Assembly on "Combating intolerance, negative stereotyping and stigmatization and discrimination, incitement to violance and violance against persons based on religion or belief'. policy the Republic of Azerbaijan pursued in the domain of and beliefs is on the freedom of thought, and bearing in mind existence of in variety of forms in the society. Furthermore, the policy of the government in the field religions and beliefs is based upon principles and norms of the international law, international agreements that Republic of Azerbaijan is party to, Constitution of the Republic Azerbaijan other documents. The Republic of Azerbaijan has implemented measures aimed state·religion relations like all other democratic Necessary steps have been taken as legal, institutional and religious activities towards preventing religious intolerance and discrimination, violence on religion, as well as strengthening dialogue among various religions in Azerbaijan for this purpose. On Legal Framework The state-religion relations in Azerbaijan been performed according to the 18 of "State and Religion", Article 25 of "Right to equality", Article 47 of "Freedom of thought and speech", Article 48 of "Freedom of conscience", 49 Article of "Freedom of assembly" and Article 71 of" Guarantees rights freedoms of man citizen" of the Constitution of Republic of Azerbaijan. In addition, law of Republic of Azerbaijan "On Freedom of is a main legal source to regulate the relations arising from activities of religious associations, define duties, rights and status of religious associations and create guarantees for implementation of freedom of religious belief in the country. law "On fight against religious extremism" was adopted in 2015 define legal and organizational grounds for the fighting against extremism, determine rights and obligations of authorities citizens in order to fight religious extremism. It plays a significant role in increasing the efficiency of the state policy on formation and improvement of the framework to present-day requirements. A number amendments and changes were made to Administrative Offenses and Criminal in to ensure religious freedom effectively in the country and appropriate policy was established in this area during the period. On Institutional activity Committee on Religious Associations of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SCRA) which was on 21, 2001, is central executive body implementing state policy in field of religion is doing best for the development and enhancement of the democracy in the country as well as giving policy recommendations in this regard. activity of SCRA pursued in the domain of state-religion relations is based on establishing favorable condition for the implementation of religious freedom, conducting the state registration and registry maintenance of religious communities in line with the law of the Republic of Azerbaijan, strengthening tolerance, mutual understanding and respect among religious communities of different faiths and preventing religious radicalism, extremism. confrontation. discrimination and other negative cases. The Committee also organizes visits to holy places of the country and part in obtaining interstate agreements on these issues. On Government's policy in religion According to the statistics, about 96 of population of Azerbaijan are Muslims while other four percent is considered as Christians, Bahaists, Krishnaites and representatives of other religions. From June 2020 to March 2021, religious communities were registered in the country. At present, the number of religious communities registered in the country is 969 the confessional point of view, 932 of them are Islamic and are non-Islamic (Christian - 26; Jewish ~ Krishna - 1; Baha'i - 2). There are 2.250 in the country, as well as 16 churches and 7 synagogues. According to the Article 8 of the on Freedom of Religious Belief' of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Islamic religious communities are subordinated by the caucasian Muslims Board, in of organizational matters, whereas non-Islamic religious associations have the right to subordinated to religious centers (organizations) operating in the Republic of Azerbaijan and abroad, as well as to change respective subordination. Although the Republic of Azerbaijan is a care for religion and believers has been all For the last by the order of President of the Republic of Azerbaijan. dated June 2, 2020, in order to provide financial assistance to religious communities, envisaged by state budget the Republic of Azerbaijan for 2020, from the reserve fund of the 2 million AZN Caucasus Muslims Board. 350 thousand AZN to Russian Orthodox of Baku and Azerbaijan, thousand AlN to Mountain Jews Community of Baku city, 350 thousand AlN to Baku Religious Community of European Jews, 150 thousand AlN to Roman Catholic Apostolic Prefecture of Republic of Azerbaijan, 150 thousand AZN to Religious Community of the Alban• Udi Christians of Azerbaijan, as well as for provision of financial to non• Muslim religious communities 100 thousand AZN to Moral Values Promotion Fund under State Committee on Religious Associations were allocated. It should be noted that the allocated funds were distributed among a number of non-Islamic religious organizations, taking into number their supporters or worshippers. On education Since 2017 to the present, 11 religious educational institutions been registered. According to the Order of President of Republic of Azerbaijan No. 3654 dated February 9, 18, the Azerbaijan Theological Institute was established under the SeRA in order ensure the interest of religion in society, the training of educated the development of theology. institute has one faculty of Theology) and three departments (Department of Theology, Islamic Studies and languages, Social Sciences). At present, 200 students study at bachelor's level, 5 at the master's level and 2 at the doctoral level. It should noted that since September 2019, subject "Introduction to Multiculturalism" is taught as a bachelor's degree, and subject "Azerbaijan's multiculturalism" is taught as a main subject in higher education institutions Azerbaijan at the master's level. subject "Azerbaijani multiculturalism" is included in curricula of 15 foreign universities {Czech Republic, lithuania, Poland, Germany, Switzerland, Italy. Portugal, Turkey, Indonesia, Russia, Georgia, and brought to the attention of students. On awareness-raising activities During 2020, the RA carried out a total of about 50 awareness-raising events (including online) separately and together with other events. attended by more than 5,000 included close cooperation with central and local authorities, the armed forces, as well as law enforcement agencies, educational institutions, youth organizations, religious organizations and other NGOs. Since January 2020, "State-religion model of Azerbaijan: secularism", and religion in the context of modern realities", "Religious education, religious nurture and secularism", of XXI century: religion and women", "State- Religious relations: history, law and tradition" educational seminars-trainings been held. It should be noted due to the of the COVI 9 pandemic in the world, simultaneously to the requirements of social isolation applied in the country March 2020, religious awareness-raising planned to held in live format have been held in video with citizens. On international cooperation On June , 2020, the SCRA jointiy with the Azerbaijan Theological Institute (AT!) and the Protestant Theological and Religious Studies Faculty (FUTP) in BrusselS organized a seminar on role religious identity in intercultural and interreligiOUS dialogue: A video conference on "Azerbaijan and the Belgian model", The purpose of the video conference was to strengthen religiOUS identity in multifaceted of modern global Scholars from both universities exchanged views on research methods used to strengthen religious identity in the framework of intercultural and interreligious dialogue as a way to fight against religious radicalization. On June 24, 2020, the State Committee on Religious Associations of Republic of Azerbaijan and the State Committee for Religious Affairs under