96 NGOs advocated the policy of the Azerbaijani authorities

On behalf of the Azerbaijani society to an anonymous group of 96 NGOs sent an appeal to President of PACE Pedro Agramunt. The nature of the appeal shows that a group of NGOs advocates  the Azerbaijani authorities, who are accused by independent representatives of civil society and the PACE leadership of violating human rights and freedoms.

For example,  the appeal  indicates that some existing European NGOs, united with local organizations to carry out specific activities aimed at worsening relations between the official Baku and European institutions. The appeal sent on behalf of civil society groups on the eve of the PACE January session to PACE members  is a lies and blackmail not based on any facts. This appeal is part of an organized campaign. It  further noted that the alleged signatories of the document did not have any idea about this text.  The appeal does not note  the name of any person who would have refused to sign a petition to PACE.

A group of 96 PACE President proposes to unite against the forces interested in disrupting the relations between the Council of Europe and Azerbaijan. According to the authors, the occupiers (Armenian - Ed.) and their supporting forces want to weaken the country's position in international organizations. "We strongly condemn a smear campaign against the Azerbaijani delegation to PACE. We believe it is an insidious activity forces trying to attack on the relations between Azerbaijan and Europe," the statement says.

As you know, on January 17, about 60 independent representatives of civil society, the media, lawyers and civil society activists in Azerbaijan openly sent a collective letter to PACE members on the eve of the January session with a call to evaluate the facts of corruption in their midst.

In particular,  the talk is about the former Vice-President of the PACE Luca Volonte, whom the Milan prosecutor's office accuses of  taking bribes totaling 2.39 million Euros from the Azerbaijani deputies Elhan Suleymanov and Muslim Mamedov, in exchange for efforts to disrupt a critical resolution on political prisoners in Azerbaijan in 2013.

The letter calls for the right to vote to freeze the Azerbaijani delegation to PACE until the end of the investigation, as well as to consider invalid the results of the voting on the resolution 2013 of Christopher Strasser on political prisoners in Azerbaijan.

"PACE should immediately restore the mandate of a special rapporteur on political prisoners in Azerbaijan, to prepare a new report on human rights violations in collaboration with Council of Europe experts,"  the statement says.

Authors of the message also urged not to restore the voting rights of the Azerbaijani delegation to complete the investigation of corruption, and the release from prison Ilgar Mamedov and other political prisoners.

 On 19 January co-rapporteurs of the PACE Monitoring Committee Shennak Stefan and Florin Cezar Preda issued a statement on the results of their visit to Baku on January 12-14, and confirmed the existence of problems.

"It is extremely important to give impetus to the reform process and to continue the dialogue with the authorities, in particular in areas such as the judiciary, media freedom, human rights, NGO legislation," said in a statement.

The co-rapporteurs discussed the issue of human rights in Azerbaijan, in particular the position of "political prisoners", based on the "prisoners of conscience" in the list, compiled by Amnesty International.

Referring to the release of some human rights defenders, political activists and journalists in 2016, the co-rapporteurs expressed the hope that this process will continue in 2017.

"We have examined the specific cases of people in custody. In addition, our discussions were mainly focused on the reform of the justice system as a whole. It is important to address the root causes of the problem and increase the credibility and independence of the justice system.

It is necessary to understand the criminal justice system, the pre-trial detention, development of alternative sanctions not related to pre-trial detention, the creation of a separate justice system for Minors," said the co-rapporteurs.

The co-rapporteurs also welcomed the willingness expressed by the government to amend the legislation on NGOs and its implementation in accordance with European standards.

"The authorities should make full use of the experience of the Venice Commission on the reform of the legislation on NGOs", the co-rapporteurs say.

Discussions also focused on the development of the Internet and social media, as well as freedom of expression and freedom of the media. The co-rapporteurs are particularly concerned about the latest facts of the detention of a number of young bloggers.

The co-rapporteurs are also concerned about reports of ill-treatment of blogger Mehman Huseynov, called for a transparent investigation.