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Space for critical views ‘curtailed’ in Azerbaijan during Council of Europe chairmanship
The space to express critical views was “curtailed” in Azerbaijan during its Council of Europe chairmanship, finds a report by a group of Azerbaijani civil society activists.
Azerbaijan undertook the six-month rotating chairmanship in May 2014. The chairmanship ended in November.
Download the full report (PDF)
The writers of the report wish to remain anonymous out of concern for the security of their family members.
When Azerbaijan acceded to the chairmanship, the government was expected to demonstrate its commitment to international human rights standards. In fact, the opposite happened, says the report.
At the start of the chairmanship, the list of political prisoners published by human rights defenders featured 82 people, says the report. During the chairmanship this figure reached 100.
On 5 December, Azerbaijan authorised two months of pre-trial detention for the well-known Azerbaijani investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova. A move with “all the hallmarks of another blatant attempt to gag free media in Azerbaijan,” said John Dalhuisen, Europe and Central Asia Programme Director at Amnesty International.
As the chairmanship came to and end in November, several international human rights organisations expressed their concern over the situation in the country and the discrepancies between the country’s poor human rights record and the responsibilities of the chairmanship:
“It can be said without exaggeration that Azerbaijan’s tenure represented an assault on the institution and everything it stands for,” said Human Rights Watch in November.
The report is published the day before a 10 December meeting on Azerbaijan’s human rights situation in the Legal Affairs Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
