The Azerbaijani authorities deliberately ignored the fundamental freedoms

There are serious problems in  Azerbaijan in meeting its international obligations on freedom of media and expression , association and assembly . Specific violations of these freedoms contained  the reports of the Institute for Reporters Freedom and Safety ( IRFS )  presented on Friday.  The studies were carried out with the support of the International Media Support (IMS).

In partnership with the international human rights organizations  a report "Azerbaijan and the EU : Policy Dilemma " (Azerbaijan and the European Union: A Policy Dilemma) was written, and  presented at the end of September in Brussels, according to the IRFS Director, Emin Huseynov .

In the framework of the PACE autumn session was distributed more than 100 page report , " Resolution N 222 : progress on the commitments by Azerbaijan to respect fundamental freedoms " (Opinion no 222 : Implementation of the Azerbaijan's commitments to the Council of Europe in the field of fundamental freedoms).

The title of this document is taken from the Resolution N 222 of the obligations of Azerbaijan to the Council of Europe ( 2001 ), most of which are ignored by the authorities.

"These studies are based on facts and evidence on the state of implementation of Azerbaijan's commitments to international organizations," said the representative of IMS in Azerbaijan, Gulnara Akhundova .

In preparing the report , the recommendations made ​​at a special hearing made ​​in May, the UN Committee on Human Rights were taken into account.

"More than 30 countries put forward 120 recommendations. The Azerbaijani government has agreed on 100 of them. We intend to monitor the implementation of these recommendations before the next hearing,  to be held  in four years," said Huseynov.

Another report "False Freedom: Internet freedom in Azerbaijan, a year after the 7th Global Forum on Internet Governance"  is on the situation with the freedom of the Internet.

Despite assurances from the authorities on freedom of the Internet, the situation has worsened. The requirements of the law of defamation are applicable for the Internet. Technical infrastructure of the Internet is also poor. According to the speed of loading and placement of materials , Azerbaijan  is by six times  behind Russia and  by three times  behind Georgia. On the eve of the election intensified repression of Internet activists.

Currently, at least three bloggers Zaur Gurbanli, Ilkin Rustamzade, and Rashad Ramazanov are in jail. Most of the nine arrested  journalists are members of online media.  Point strikes "by the authorities - arrests of active users of social networks give short-term effect, and a month later, the  criticism of the government once again increases.

In October 2014 , Baku will host the summit of the OSCE PA . But previously, in May 2014 , Azerbaijan will become the chairman of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe . It is unacceptable that  our country come to the  event with a large number of political prisoners , regressive legislation ,  non- transparent Freedom of Information Act .

The IRFS  together with partner organizations intends to work actively during the January and April session of PACE. If, before the end of the year political prisoners are not released , it will bring up the issue of the restoration of the Institute  of Rapporteur on political prisoners and the appointment of a new speaker  on political freedoms, Huseynov said.

In turn, the director of the Turan news agency, Mehman Aliyev, noted that the presented studies show that international organizations can not effectively monitor the implementation of Azerbaijan's commitments.

He drew attention to the critical situation with the freedom of the media , the lack of the advertising market, and the survival of the remaining  one or two opposition media , which, due to artificial problems with the sale,  are agonizing .

The event was attended by representatives of the embassies of Western countries and international  organizations. —06D-