Joint Statement on Azerbaijan under Item 4 of the 28th Session of the UN Human Rights Council

17 March 2015

Item 4

General debate

Joint NGOs’ statement

Check against delivery

This joint statementis delivered by the Human Rights House Foundation on behalf of joint NGOscoalition, composed as following:

Civicus, Article 19,Human Rights Watch, the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR), theInternational Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World OrganisationAgainst Torture in the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of HumanRights Defenders.

Thank you, MrChairperson,

Since the presidentialelection in October 2013, Azerbaijan is leading a crackdown against humanrights defenders and, more generally, against any independent voices in thecountry. As a result, unrelenting crackdown on human rights, key leaders ofhuman rights organisations are behind bars, as well as leading journalists andother peaceful activists, including many activists of the youth movement NIDA.

Among those detainedare several of the country’s most prominent human rights defenders andjournalists. InJuly and August 2014, [including] LeylaYunus[1],Director of the Institute for Peace and Democracy, and her husband, Arif Yunus, were arrested and charged with statetreason, large-scale fraud, forgery, tax evasion and illegal entrepreneurshipunder the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan. In August, [as well as] Rasul Jafarov[2],a human rights defender behind the “Sing for Democracy” campaign. The human rights lawyer Intigam Aliyev,President of the Legal Education Society, who assisted in bringing at least 130cases to the European Court of Human Rights, is also arrested and charged with tax evasion, illegalentrepreneurship, and abuse of authority. Weare particularly worried by the health situation of Leyla Yunus and IntigamAliyev who require immediate medical support.

New amendments toregistration and funding laws systematically impede access to domestic andforeign funding, including by requiring government licensing of all donors, andapproval of each funded project, which cuts off practically all funding forNGOs that work to hold the government accountable. The amendments also provide the governmentwith enormous discretion to dissolve, impose financial penalties on, and freezethe assets of CSOs for minor infractions of existing laws. Of particularconcern are provisions, which prevent national organizations from accessinglocal cash donations, and allow the government to freeze or deny internationalfunding to domestic CSOs if an activity is determined to “undermine theinterests of the state.”

As a result, many NGOs have been forced to cease their activities and are subjectedto legal prosecution. Bank accounts of more than a dozen NGOs are blocked andtheir offices are being searched and in some cases sealed. Many more humanrights defenders have fled the country. Since May 2014, authorities have frozenthe bank accounts of at least 50 independent organizations and, in manycases, of their staff members, whilenumerous others have been interrogated and otherwise harassed, forcing them tosuspend their activities. In addition, severalinternational NGOs operating in Azerbaijan, with longstanding partnershipswith local CSOs in the country, havebeen forced to leave Azerbaijan or suspend operations.

Mr Chairperson,

The crackdown is notlimited to NGO leaders but also aims at targeting independent media in thecountry.

On 8 August 2014, police raided the offices of the Institute for Reporters’ Freedom andSafety (IRFS), a leading media rights NGO in the country, lead by Emin Huseynov who is facing similarcharges as the previously mentioned human rights defenders.[3]The Institute is now effectively closed.

On 27 December 2014,police raided the Baku office of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and briefly detained dozens of itsstaff members, questioning many. RFE/RL (it) has since been forced to suspendits activities in Azerbaijan and is being investigated by the authorities. Inaddition, on 3 February 2015, President Ilham Aliyev approved far reachingamendments to the law on Media and Mass Information permitting Azerbaijan’sMinistry of Justice to petition the court requesting closure of any mediaoutlet that receives foreign funding or found guilty of defamation twice. The RFE Office in Baku is since closed.

At least 12journalists remain in prison in Azerbaijan. Most recently, on 29 January 2015, [amongst them] well-known journalist Seymour Hazi was sentenced to fiveyears in prison on spurious ‘hooliganism’ charges, after already spending fivemonths in pre-trial detention. Hazi, a reporter with the opposition dailyAzadlig, is a vocal critic of government repression of civil society. Two daysearlier, on 27 January 2015, the pre-trial detention of award-winning (and) the investigative journalist KhadijaIsmayilova was extended for two months. The authorities arrested Ismayilovaon 5 December 2014 on dubious charges of incitement to attempt a suicide andlater, on 13 February 2015, charged her with tax evasion, illegalentrepreneurship, and abuse of authority.

Mr Chairperson,

We call upon the Republic of Azerbaijan to put an end to the systematicpunishment of leaders of civil society, and to immediately and unconditionallyrelease all human rights defenders, journalists and activists held in custody,and drop all charges brought against other human rights defenders, journalistsand activists. We further call uponAzerbaijan to cooperate with independent human rights mechanisms, including byensuring their ability to conduct country visits, and are in this mannersatisfied to see that the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) hasscheduled a new visit to the country, following the one it had to cancel inSeptember 2014,[4] and to implement legislative changes asrecommended by such bodies, including the Venice Commission and theCommissioner of the Council of Europe.

Thank you, MrChairperson.

[1] See also:http://humanrightshouse.org/Articles/20302.html.

[2] See also:http://humanrightshouse.org/Articles/20306.html.

[3] More information about EminHuseynov available at http://humanrightshouse.org/Articles/20730.html.

[4] See the Subcommittee’s pressrelease of 17 September 2014 athttp://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=15047&LangID=E