Activists: Human Rights in Azerbaijan Massively Violated

Baku / 18.06.18 / Turan: Human rights in Azerbaijan are massively violated, there are a large number of political prisoners in the country, civil activists are arrested, and the situation with media freedom and social and political freedoms is depressing. This was the leitmotif of the speeches at the meeting held at the office of the Azerbaijan Committee of the Helsinki Civil Assembly (HCA) on the occasion of the National Human Rights Day, celebrated on June 18.

"Civil society and freedom of media have been destroyed in the country. There is an atmosphere of arbitrariness, aggression and impunity. People calling for freedom and democracy seem to be a threat to the state and the authorities. People are subjected to arrests for criticism, and youth activists are persecuted. All this certainly worries people who fight for democratic freedoms," said HCA cochairman Arzu Abdullayeva.

Head of the Society for the Protection of Women's Rights named after Dilara Aliyeva, Novella Jafaroglu, pointed to the limitation of opportunities for human rights activities.

"We worked with foreign donors for a long time. They supported our efforts in the field of human rights and democratic development. We were assisted in the work on democratic education of the population, especially in the regions. However, they began to blame the donor for an attempt at a coup d'etat and propaganda for the revolution. But over the years of cooperation, we have never encountered this," Jafaroglu said.

According to her, due to the lack of educational work in some families, women's rights are trampled in unprecedented ways. In particular, she cited the example of the complete isolation of women in families where the head professes Wahhabism. "It's got to the point that there is not even a TV in such families. Women are not allowed out of the house so much that they dream to see the sunset and sunrise, the arrival of spring and rainfall. Sometimes women, in order to be saved from such horror, are ready to run away, leaving their children. This is horrible," said Jafaroglu.

She condemned the criminal persecution of NGO leaders. "Due to the financial crisis of 2015, when the manat was devalued twice and every family was harmed, nobody was punished. However, the leaders of NGOs involved in human rights education were arrested," Jafaroglu said.

Participants of the meeting also discussed the situation with media freedom.

"In the country, after the disruption of independent traditional media, information initiatives in social networks have intensified. Government-controlled media cannot cope with information initiatives in social networks. A ramified network of trolls has been created against them. But nobody believes these trolls. In social networks, insults, slander and defamation of human rights are growing. This is a game, in which the relevant section of the presidential administration is on one side and their opponents are on the other. Because of the lack of a healthy, responsible media, this vicious policy negatively affects the society," the Turan news agency's director, Mehman Aliyev, said.

In his view, the arrests that began after the presidential election show that the authorities are pursuing and tightening the policy of fomenting fear in society.

Head of the Monitoring Center for Political Prisoners Elshan Hasanov also focused on the continuing arrests.

"In the period of extraordinary presidential elections on the eve of the coordinated meetings of the National Council, over 100 activists were summoned to the police. Some of them were arrested. In recent times, there have been more cases of torture in the police. Arrests on charges of illicit drug trafficking have become commonplace. Sometimes people are arrested and the place of their detention is not reported within 10 days. They are not allowed to meet their lawyers," Hasanov said.

The human rights activist Hilal Mammadov pointed to the persecution of family members and relatives of activists living abroad.

The former "prisoner of conscience" Avaz Zeynalli touched upon the violation of prisoners' rights. At the same time, he pointed out that prisoners receive extraordinary visits and phone calls for a fee. If this is possible, conditions should be created for prisoners to use this legitimate way. He noted the need to carry out pardons on a permanent basis.

Following the discussions, human rights activists noted the need to expand the civil movement, conduct educational work among the population, especially in the regions, return foreign donors to the country, change the attitude of the authorities to NGOs, restore media freedom, and stop repression and torture. --03C06--