Center for Monitoring Elections, Democracy Education Publishes Report on Violations of Citizens' Rights during Quarantine Period

Baku / 23.09.20 / Turan: The Center for Monitoring Elections and Democracy Education (CMEDE) has distributed an overview document on the political crisis in Azerbaijan during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The study analyzes the government's measures to counter the pandemic and compliance with quarantine, and the political situation amid repression against critics of the government.

CMEDE believes the Cabinet of Ministers has exceeded its powers, limiting the constitutional rights and freedoms of citizens. According to article 71 of the Constitution, rights and freedoms can be limited only in the event of a declaration of war or a state of emergency.

In addition, during the pandemic, disproportionate penalties were introduced, police abuses took place, and politically motivated repression was intensified.

A special quarantine regime was introduced three weeks after the early parliamentary elections, which, according to local and international observers, were accompanied by serious violations of the law. As a result, the state-citizen relationship entered a period of crisis.

On the eve of the pandemic, there were 104 political prisoners in the country, and during the pandemic, repressions began to grow and the number of political prisoners almost doubled.

Thus, in the first 3 months of quarantine, 33 activists were administratively arrested, and six were charged with politically motivated criminal charges. 56 critics of the authorities and political activists were subjected to political pressure in one form or another.

On March 17, the law "On Information, Informatization and Protection of Information" was changed, which restricts freedom of information. Officials motivated this by the need to prevent false information. Thus, the amendments introduced a ban on the dissemination of information, harmful to health and life of people, violating public safety.

CMEDE recommended control of the parliament and civil society institutions over the application of the quarantine regime by the executive authorities.

CMEDE also recommended a fair consideration by the courts of administrative offenses related to the quarantine regime, to stop video and photographing of the persons prosecuted and their public demonstration.

It was recommended to eliminate mutual distrust in the relationship between the state and the citizen, to objectively reconsider the cases of political prisoners in order to avoid deepening the political crisis, and to release political prisoners from the lists of human rights defenders.   — 2106-