“Government officials and police are the worst violators of citizens’ rights. Chairmen of courts and mayors turn a blind eye to complaining people coming to see them. Moreover, there are problems with state registration of legal entities, including NGOs in the country. My appeals to the Justice Ministry over such complaints remain unattended for months”, said Ombudsman (Human Rights Commissioner) Elmira Suleymanova while presenting her annual report to the parliament.  (4-APR-2005)

According to the Ombudsman, the Office received 6300 appeals (+70% to the 2004 number). E. Suleymanova said that the analysis of incoming appeals showed that the lion’s share the human rights violations were caused by the official arbitrariness and official misuse of authority in personal interests. Most often citizens’ honour and dignity is infringed upon by police employees.

Prison conditions poor
She also added that the adoption a law regulating the issues of the detention in temporary isolators is necessary, for the monitoring conducted jointly with OSCE experts revealed serious violations. In the result of the monitoring, chief of colony 14 Amiraslan Huseynov and chief of colony 11, Ogtay Hasanov have been discharged form their positions. The heads of 7 more places of imprisonment were brought to responsibility for the admitted violations. The Ombudsman’s proposals are taken into account in the issuance of pardon decrees. The ombudsman’s petitions helped release 35 prisoners during the last year only, totaling the number to 100.

NGOs not registered
The Ombudsman expressed a concern of the mass rejections by the Ministry of Justice to register associations of citizens and NGOs. In this regard, the Ombudsman had repeatedly addressed the chief law body but received no response.

Corruption: insurmountable problem
The Ombudsman said the corruption level in the country has reached an alarming scale. “Corruption in some government bodies has become regular, which frequently leads to human rights violations.” Most of the complaints received relating to corruption observed in law-enforcement bodies and courts, as well as health and educational institutions, Suleymanova said, pointing out the need for taking urgent steps to solve the problem. “A law ´On rules of conduct for government officials´ should be passed,” she said.

Various Problems
Touching upon the issue of the mass media, E.Suleymanova stated that their primary problems lies in funding, access to information and payment of unreasonably large penalties imposed on them by courts. Suleymanova said that the freedom of speech is not fully ensured in the country, as instances of “financial pressure on newspapers persists”.

In E. Suleymanova’s opinion, for the purposes of democratic, fair and free elections it is necessary to create a uniform system of monitoring for the creation of separate groups made up by authorities and opposition representatives.

Serious problems, in E.Suleymanova’s opinion, are also present in the judicial defense of the rights and freedom of citizens. Numerous facts of claimants’ humiliation and refusal in reception of their appeals have been disclosed in the Barda, Imishli, Terter, Sabirabad, Sheki provinces and the Ganja town. Gross infringements have been observed in the last years in the provision of the right for work. The worst violations of the labor legislation are committed by foreign companies operating in the Azerbaijan Republic. A similarly sad situation is seen in the sphere of the enforcement of court decisions, education, public healthcare, land reform, and prosecution bodies.

The Ombudsman´s office has received numerous complaints from Azerbaijanis working for foreign companies in the country over violation of their rights. Some companies operating with foreign capital impede the establishment of trade unions by various means, while relevant government agencies continue turning a blind eye to these violations, Suleymanova said. The Ombudsman emphasized violations of rights in the private sector, in particular, illegal interference with entrepreneurial activity.