6 HAJILI v. AZERBAIJAN JUDGMENT THE LAW I. THE GOVERNMENT’S REQUEST FOR THE APPLICATION TO BE STRUCK OUT UNDER ARTICLE 37 OF THE CONVENTION 22. By letter dated 26 October 2010 the Government informed the Court of their unilateral declaration with a view to resolving the issues raised by eight separate applications, including the present application lodged by Mr Arif Hajili. The declaration read as follows: “Having regard to the Court’s judgment in the case of Namat Aliyev v. Azerbaijan (application no. 18705/06, 8 April 2010) the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan wish to express – by way of a unilateral declaration – its acknowledgement that in the cases of Yagub Mammadov (application no. 24506/06), Arif Hajili (application no. 6984/06), Mirmahmud Fattalyev (application no. 40318/06), Fuad Mustafayev (application no. 19552/06), Isa Gambar (application no. 4741/06), Elchin Rzayev (application no. 22457/06), Eldar Namazov (application no. 22564/06), Ilham Huseyn (application no. 36105/06) v. Azerbaijan the rights of the applicants under Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 were violated. The Government are prepared to pay to each applicant total sum of EUR 9,100 (nine thousand one hundred euros) in compensation for non-pecuniary damage and costs and expenses. These sums shall be free of any tax that may be applicable and shall be payable within three months from the date of the notification of the striking-out judgment of the Court pursuant to Article 37 of the European Convention on Human Rights. From the expiry of the above-mentioned period, simple interest shall be payable on the above amounts at a rate equal to the marginal lending rate of the European Central Bank during the default period plus three percentage points. The Government consider that this amount will be an adequate redress and sufficient compensation for the impugned violations and thus will constitute the final settlement of the present cases. The Government note that the Election Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan has been amended – following the recommendations of the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe – in order to improve the procedure of examination of the complaints by the electoral commissions. The Government will also undertake to issue appropriate instructions and adopt all necessary measures in view to ensure that all complaints concerning election irregularities are effectively addressed at the domestic level in the future. Moreover, the ‘Action Plan for Council of Europe support to parliamentary election in Azerbaijan in November 2010’ was adopted in cooperation between the Government of Azerbaijan and the Council of Europe in order to support the election process in the country. Various measures (political, legislative, training, media issues, voters’ awareness raising, etc.) were scheduled in this document. In particular, taking account of the Court’s judgment in the case of Namat Aliyev v. Azerbaijan and its case-law, as well as applications lodged with the Court against Azerbaijan with respect to Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention, various trainings and seminars will be organized for the representatives of the electoral administration as well as judges in order to improve the appeals and complaints system stipulated in the