Gold medal on repression in the run-up to the Baku Games

Geneva,June 11, 2015 – On the eve of the opening of the first European Games takingplace in Baku, the Azeri government keeps ignoring the international call forrelease of jailed human rights defenders and journalists.

The crackdown on Azericivil society, NGOs and journalists has particularly escalated over the pastyear, as the date of the Baku European Games approached[1].The result of such a massive repression is the arbitrary arrest and detentionon trumped-up charges of several human rights defenders and journalists, amongwhom: Leyla Yunus[2],member of OMCT General Assembly, Arif Yusunov[3],Intigam Aliyev[4],Rasul Jafarov[5],Khadija Ismayilova[6],Hilal Mammadov, Anar Mammadli and Rauf Mirqadirov.

“It is difficult tounderstand that the Baku Games could be business as usual for the sportingcommunity when the Azeri government’s behavior is as far as it could be fromthe Olympic principles. A paradigmatic example is that defenders like ourcolleague Leyla Yunus remain imprisoned despite their deteriorating healthcondition due to the refusal of Azerbaijan to at least release them onhumanitarian grounds. Moreover, it is important to highlight that the repressionseems to be a strategy closely linked with the celebration of the Games in Bakuin order to prevent criticism from spoiling the event as it happened with theEurovision contest”, declaredGerald Staberock, OMCT Secretary General.

On May 28, 2015, Members of theEuropean Parliament from all political groups issued a joint statement callingfor the unconditional release of political prisoners in Azerbaijan before thestarting of the first edition of the European Games. In the document, theystressed that "the label 'European' should be given meaning, in the sensethat the European Games should take place while human rights and fundamentalfreedoms are respected"[7].

On June 3, 2015, the Council ofEurope Human Rights Commissioner, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of Mediaand the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders signeda joint statement calling for athletes to take a stand on human rights issuesin Azerbaijan[8].

Following theaforementioned public statements as well as the mobilisation of Sport ForRights Campaign, an initiative raising the issue of political prisoners in thecontext of the forthcoming international sporting events in Azerbaijan, ofwhich OMCT and FIDH are members, the first statement from the sport worldarrived from Germany.

On June 4, 2015, the German OlympicSports Confederation called upon the Azeri authorities to free Azerbaijanijailed activists before the European Games. Furthermore, top officials ofGermany and members of the government announced on the same day that they wouldnot attend the opening ceremony of the Baku Games.

The Observatory welcomes the stepsforward taken by some major political and sports stakeholders, and hopes thatthis will be of example for others to take a stand for human rights inAzerbaijan, and to join the call for the immediate and unconditional release ofall arbitrarily jailed human rights defenders and journalists.

“The Observatory calls on all European States tocondition their presence at the opening of the Baku Games to the release of allimprisoned human rights defenders. The recent events withAmnesty International’s delegation being barred entry to the country[9]and UK human rights campaigner Emma Hughes being detained, red-listed anddeported upon her arrival in Baku Airport[10]just two days ahead of the opening of the Games should effectively be the laststraw and should trigger a strong reaction by other European States”, declared KarimLahidji, FIDH President.

Our organizations once again stronglycondemn the ongoing Azeri crackdown on civil society and arbitrary detention ofseveral human rights defenders and journalists, as they only aim at sanctioningtheir human rights work and freedom of expression.

For more information, please contact:

• OMCT:Miguel Martín Zumalacárregui (English/Spanish/French) - Tel: +41 22 809 49 39 (Geneva)
• FIDH : ArthurManet / Lucie Kroening (French/English/Spanish) - Tel: +33 6 48 05 91 57(Paris) / Arthur Manet (French/English/Spanish) - Tel: +33 6 72 28 42 94(Paris)

[1] See the Fact-Finding Mission Report of the Observatory for the Protection ofHuman Rights Defenders (joint OMCT-FIDH programme) available here: Repression escalates in run-up to European Games - International Fact-Finding Mission Report

[2] See http://www.omct.org/human-rights-defenders/urgent-interventions/azerbaijan/2015/02/d23001/.

[3] Seehttp://www.omct.org/human-rights-defenders/statements/azerbaijan/2015/02/d22993/.

[4] Seehttp://www.omct.org/human-rights-defenders/statements/azerbaijan/2015/04/d23102/.

[5] See http://www.omct.org/human-rights-defenders/statements/azerbaijan/2015/04/d23093/.

[6] Seehttp://www.omct.org/human-rights-defenders/urgent-interventions/azerbaijan/2015/05/d23140/.

[7] Seehttp://www.ulrike-lunacek.eu/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Joint-Statement-Azerbaijan.pdf

[8] See https://opendemocracy.net/nils-mui%C5%BEnieks-michel-forst-dunja-mijatovi%C4%87/sport-cannot-ignore-human-rights.

[9] See Amnesty International’s public statement available at :https://www.amnesty.org/en/articles/news/2015/06/amnesty-international-barred-from-baku-ahead-of-european-games.

[10] See Platform’s press release available at:http://platformlondon.org/p-pressreleases/azerbaijan-emma-hughes-detained/.