International Coalition Urged Merkel to Raise Issue of Human Rights before Aliyev

The International Coalition of NGO "Sport in the name of human rights" addressed to German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the eve of her meeting with President Ilham Aliyev in Berlin.

Authors of the appeal ask Merkel to make the main subject of human rights at the meeting.

"In recent years, Azerbaijan has constantly limited space for journalism and civil society activities. We have witnessed unprecedented repression during the last 6 months. For criticizing the authorities arrested and thrown into prison were leading human rights activists and investigative journalist. They are accused on trumped up charges such as tax evasion," the appeal says.

The coalition "Sport in the name of human rights" was created to raise human rights issues in the context of international sporting events, conduct of which is planned in Azerbaijan. In particular, we are talking about the upcoming June 2015 European Games in Baku.

"To be successful, these games require urgent policy changes, as well as the release from detention of journalists and human rights defenders." Therefore, the authors of the appeal call Angela Merkel to raise these issues at the meeting with Aliyev.

In particular, the coalition asks Merkel to remind Aliyev on the obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights. "Before you become a master of the upcoming games, you must erase the disgrace of human rights violations," the appeal reads, signed by Center for Civil Liberties (Ukraine), the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights (Poland), Index on Censorship (UK), International Partnership for Human Rights (Belgium), the Netherlands Helsinki Committee, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, People in Need (Czech Republic), Platform (UK), the Fund Youaid (Poland) and a group of civil society activists. -04D-