6
ANNAGI HAJIBEYLI v. AZERBAIJAN JUDGMENT
II. RELEVANT
DOMESTIC
DOCUMENTS
LAW
AND
INTERNATIONAL
29. The relevant domestic law and international documents concerning
the rules and requirements for candidate registration, as well as observations
made during the 2010 parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan, are
summarised in Tahirov v. Azerbaijan (no. 31953/11, §§ 23-31, 11 June
2015).
THE LAW
I. THE GOVERNMENT’S REQUEST FOR THE APPLICATION TO BE
STRUCK OUT UNDER ARTICLE 37 OF THE CONVENTION
30. On 16 September 2014 the Government submitted a unilateral
declaration with a view to resolving the issues raised by the present
application. They further requested the Court to strike the application out of
the list of cases in accordance with Article 37 of the Convention.
31. The unilateral declaration had been submitted before the applicant
raised the complaint under Article 34 of the Convention in the present case.
It therefore does not cover the issues pertinent to that complaint.
32. The applicant disagreed with the terms of the unilateral declaration.
He noted that it did not contain any undertakings as to general or individual
measures to be taken in respect of his case. He argued that the actual
intention behind the Government’s declaration was to avoid the Court’s
examination of the case on its merits and to prevent the supervision by the
Committee of Ministers of the execution by the Government of the Court’s
judgment on the merits.
33. The Court notes that it may be appropriate in certain circumstances
to strike out an application, or part thereof, under Article 37 § 1 on the basis
of a unilateral declaration by the respondent Government even where the
applicant wishes the examination of the case to be continued. Whether this
is appropriate in a particular case depends on whether the unilateral
declaration offers a sufficient basis for finding that respect for human rights
as defined in the Convention does not require the Court to continue its
examination of the case (see Tahsin Acar v. Turkey (preliminary objections)
[GC], no. 26307/95, § 75, ECHR 2003-VI).
34. Relevant factors in this respect include the nature of the complaints
made, whether the issues raised are comparable to issues already determined
by the Court in previous cases, the nature and scope of any measures taken
by the respondent Government in the context of the execution of judgments
delivered by the Court in any such previous cases, and the impact of these