Art for Democracy Foreign Activist Not Allowed Back to Azerbaijan

The Human Rights Campaign “Art for Democracy” has issued a statement, which reports the pressure on its activists.

The campaign was started December 11, 2012 by three NGOs - Institute for Reporters Freedom and Safety, Human Rights Club (HRC) and the Center for National and International Studies.

The campaign faced aggression from the authorities from the very beginning. The ruling party Yeni Azerbaijan published materials, insulting the campaign and calling it "anti-national".

A few days after the presentation, one of the participants, the film director Ulvi Mehdi was arrested by the police and subjected to two-hours of interrogation about allegations that two of the diplomats at the ceremony realized that they were missing documents.

One week after the start of the campaign, its Director of Public Awareness, U.S./U.K. citizen Rebecca Vincent temporarily left Azerbaijan. After the departure Vincent was told that her residence permit in Azerbaijan was canceled. The reasons for this have were not officially explained. Vincent was not allowed to return to Azerbaijan and reunite with her family.

HRC called on the international community to protect the critical voices in Azerbaijan and called on the authorities to respect their obligations in this area.

The campaign "Art for Democracy" is a continuation of the campaign "Sing for Democracy", which was held on the eve of Eurovision-2012.

It aims to promote the protection of human rights and democratic reforms through various art forms. -16D-