Human Rights Day in Azerbaijan

On International Human Rights Day, Samed Rahimli, the head of the Human Rights Legal Center and a lawyer, spoke on the program "Difficult  Question" about recent arrests in Azerbaijan, ongoing human rights issues in the country, and the attitudes of international organizations and the West towards these developments.

According to Rahimli, the human rights situation in Azerbaijan has shown no signs of improvement. "Human rights violations have always been a problem for us. However, from time to time, the situation has deteriorated so severely that ensuring even minimal compliance was out of the question," he noted.

"In Azerbaijan, the rights of not only the political opposition but also civil society representatives and independent media are being systematically and grossly violated with the aim of destroying them. These goals are largely close to being achieved — very little remains of civil society and independent media," Rahimli said. He added that in such circumstances, human rights defenders are unable to protect even themselves, let alone the opposition, public activists, and the media.

Rahimli also drew attention to what he described as the start of a process aimed at eliminating human rights defenders altogether.
"Azerbaijan is undergoing a phase of repression. This is the only way we can describe Human Rights Day in Azerbaijan today," he lamented.

The expert believes that the country's authorities have effectively mastered the art of neutralizing pressure from the international community over human rights violations. They skillfully manipulate the threat of Iranian expansionism and escalate tensions along the border with Armenia to avoid sanctions.

In Rahimli's view, Azerbaijani authorities previously managed to reach an agreement with the West, whereby civil society would formally remain but be institutionally destroyed. Now, they are seeking a new agreement that would allow them to completely eradicate civil society.