Authorities Accuse UN Special Rapporteur of Incompetence

Baku / 23.09.16 / Turan: Azerbaijan grossly violates and limits human rights. There are numerous instances of violations of the rights of human rights defenders and anti-democratic actions of the authorities. This is the general conclusion of the press conference in Baku by the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders Michel Forst.

As always, the official Baku hurried immediately to refute the criticism.

Assistant to the President Ali Hasanov said that the report of any international organization, and especially such as the UN, should be independent, balanced and based on proven facts.

‘Unfortunately, the report of Mr. Michel Forst did not respect this balance and did not investigate the claims put forward, in particular, the facts surrounding the arrests, the media and NGOs. The position of the Azerbaijani authorities was not studied or taken into account. Judgments, which are reflected in the "reports" of foreign NGOs like Freedom House, feeding a negative attitude towards Azerbaijan, were transferred to the document. "

The Special Rapporteur made a serious mistake, claiming the lack of dialogue between government and civil society, said Hasanov. According to him, Forst met only “the desired” NGOs.

This report does not reflect the realities and questions the competence of Forst and is of custom-made character, Hasanov said.

He is confident that this order comes from some external center, which Hasanov did not name. -02D-