Ban Ki-moon: Do not touch human rights defenders!

 Discussion about the persecution of those who cooperate with the UN took place on Thursday in Geneva, in the session of the Council for Human Rights. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon addressed the participants with a video message, which said egregious cases of persecution of people for their cooperation with the human rights mechanisms of the United Nations occur and called for an end to this shameful practice, according to the website of the United Nations.

"Over the past two decades, the UN Secretary General regularly received reports of reprisals against persons cooperating with the UN in the field of human rights. I was informed about the people who were in jail just for having coordinated the preparation of the letter addressed to me, and the man who was forced to flee the country because he had sent a report to the regular review of the Human Rights Council," said the Secretary General. He noted that the existing information on this is just the tip of the iceberg.

In an earlier report on this issue, the UN Secretary-General pointed out that last year, dozens of human rights activists in at least 12 countries around the world faced serious repression and intimidation. Human rights activists have been tortured, unlawfully detained and beaten. These people are not released abroad.

The UN chief expressed regret that a number of states do not take serious action to properly investigate these cases and called on governments around the world to protect those who cooperate with the UN in the field of human rights.

In Azerbaijan, harassment and arrests of human rights defenders are common. Thus, in recent years, arrests and other forms of persecution have been aimed at about a dozen human rights defenders and human rights organizations. Now four defenders are in jail: Vidadi Iskenderli, Thaleh Khasmamedov, Ilham Amiraslanov and Ilgar Rzayev. -02D-