UN Committee on Human Rights Publishes Final Report on Azerbaijan

The UN Human Rights Committee issued a final report on the situation in Azerbaijan on Civil and Political Rights. Discussion of this issue was held on October 20-21 in Geneva with the participation of representatives of Azerbaijan.

The report was drawn up with the participation of 18 international independent experts who monitor the application of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

This multi-page document made by the public office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights contains a broad assessment of the legislation and the real situation in the country.

In particular, the Committee expressed concern about the changes to the Constitution in the referendum of September 26, 2016 and this reform "without the involvement of Parliament or a public debate."

The amendments may restrict the rights of citizens and jeopardize the independence of the judiciary, increasing the President's powers and reduce its political responsibility, limit the rights of Parliament.

The Committee is concerned about the discrimination against sexual minorities, disabled people and people with disabilities, imprisonment of mentally retarded children in psychiatric hospitals.

There are facts of violation of gender rights, the facts of early marriage and religious temporary marriages (Kabin and Sighe) and domestic violence against women.

"The Committee is concerned about persistent reports of torture and ill-treatment, including against journalists, human rights defenders and youth activists, which in some cases led to their death."

There have been cases of violence and torture in prisons, corruption in the prison service and police detention centers. Prisoners are often denied access to lawyers, the number of which is not enough.

The Committee is concerned about the dependence of judicial independence from the executive, and the prosecution.

Judicial Committee is under the influence of the executive, the judiciary itself is corrupt.

The Committee is concerned about reports of physical attacks, politically motivated criminal charges against lawyers who criticize government policies and state officials. There remains pressure on the lawyers defending human rights defenders, activists and journalists.

The authorities are obliged to remove all these phenomena and to prevent their recurrence.

The Committee condemns the ban on leaving the country for a number of journalists, opposition politicians, human rights activists and human rights lawyers, and calls for an immediate removal of this.

On the issue of religious freedom, the Committee criticizes the restriction of the rights of believers of Muslim communities that need to obtain a permit in the Caucasian Muslims Office, the need for censorship of religious literature, as well as the facts of restrictions and harassment of members of non-traditional religious communities, such as Jehovah's Witnesses.

The Committee remains concerned about the high restriction on freedom of expression, including  intimidation, arbitrary arrests and detention, ill-treatment and the condemnation of human rights activists, youth activists, political opponents, independent journalists and bloggers on politically motivated and trumped-up charges of hooliganism, drugs, economic crime and tax evasion, and so on.

Of particular concern are the facts of revocation of licenses for the broadcasting of Radio Azadlig and politically motivated criminal proceedings against Meydan TV journalists, and the financial pressure on the independent newspaper Azadlig.

The Committee is concerned about restrictions on the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and excessive use of force against those involved in peaceful protests. In particular, this regards the NIDA activists detained during the rally of September 17, 2016 and other demonstrations in the run-up to the referendum on 26 September.

According to the Committee, Azerbaijan should review the laws and practices to ensure the rights of citizens to enjoy freedom of assembly, quickly and effectively investigate all cases of violence and excessive use of force by law enforcement officials, arbitrary arrests and detention of peaceful demonstrators and bring the perpetrators to justice.

The Committee is concerned by the legislative restrictions on the freedom of assembly and association, the refusal to register independent NGOs, restrictions on their activities and foreign funding and severe penalties for violation of these provisions.

Also, the Committee is concerned about reports of demands by the authorities in Nakhchivan to people residing there to certainly join the ruling party.

The Committee expresses concern about the facts of discrimination of Azerbaijani citizens of Armenian origin and the facts of non-admission of foreigners with Armenian surnames to Azerbaijan.

The Committee requests Azerbaijan to submit its next periodic report by 4 November 2020 and to include information on the implementation of the recommendations contained in this report.  -02D-