Baku: Most cultural laws in Azerbaijan are outdated and do not reflect modern needs, Gular Mikayilova, Head of the Legal Department of the Ministry of Culture, said during the ‘Culture and Law’ panel discussion at the ‘Culture and Law: Modern Challenges’ Forum, held for the first time in Baku, APA reports.

According to Azeri-Press news agency, Mikayilova highlighted that many of these laws, including those ‘On the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments,’ ‘On Cinematography,’ and ‘On Library Affairs,’ were enacted in 1998 and fail to address current challenges. She pointed out the fragmentation caused by parallel regulatory norms in the existing legislation, which separately regulate areas such as folklore, carpet art, and museum activities through different legal acts.

Mikayilova further noted Azerbaijan’s participation in UNESCO’s ‘Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage’ since 2006 but acknowledged the absence of a unified national legal framework for intangible cultural heritage protection. She stressed that sub-mechanisms and implementation standards for many normative acts remain undefined, and the conceptual provisions of the Law ‘On Theatre and Theatre Activity’ are not in full alignment with current practices. For instance, the law’s requirements for producer activities in the theatre sector are not mirrored in the ‘Unified Tariff-Qualification Reference Book of Service Positions in Theatre, Concert, and Circus Institutions,’ which omits the position of producer, creating inconsistencies in legal and labor classifications.