Nine Azeri human rights NGOs work to set up a Human Rights House in the capital Baku to strengthen human rights work. The nine said it was very important for them that the annual meeting of the Human Rights House Network 7-10 September was held in Baku, in the run-up to the elections. (2-OCT-05)

The past two years, nine Azeri NGOs have cooperated with the Human Rights House Foundation in Norway to establish a Human Rights House in Baku. The nine are:
-Association for Protection of Women´s Rights after D. Aliyeva (APWR),
-Citizen ´s Labor Rights Protection League (CLRPL),
-International Society Human Rights– Azerbaijan (ISHR),
-Azerbaijan Young Lawyers Union (AYLU)
-Human Rights Centre “Against Violence (AVHRC),
-Women´s Association for Rational Development (WARD),
-Center for “EL”Development Program,
-Azerbaijan Human Rights Center (AHRC), and
-Society for Humanitarian Research (SHR).

According to the NGOs such a house will make the human rights movement more visible, accessible and improve the security for human rights defenders in Azerbaijan.

– Hopefully, a Human Rights House in Baku could serve as a contribution to enhance the respect for human rights in Azerbaijan in general, and the respect and appreciation for the work of human rights defenders specifically, says the former coordinator of the project in Baku, Mr. Vugar Gojayev. 

The nine local organisations helped organize the annual meeting of the Human Rights House Network and the related conference in Baku 7-10 September this year, where they met representatives from ten other Human Rights Houses to learn from their experiences. The Azeri defenders also underlined the political implications of holding it before the elections due 5 November. They specifically stressed the importance of learning how to make appeals to the UN system:

– We highly appreciate the significant contribution of Ms. Hina Jilani UN Special Representative of the Secretary General on Human Rights Defenders, due to which the human rights defenders could receive basic information on the work of UN system. On the other side, Ms.Jilani had a unique opportunity to learn about the concerns and cases of human rights violations in Azerbaijan as well as other countries from the participants themselves. So far the program contained the workshop for regional human rights defenders, it significantly expanded the scope of beneficiaries, the nine organisations said in a letter to the OSCE, the Swedish Helsinki Committee, the International Service for Human Rights, and the Human Rights House Foundation, that hosted the conference.  

The Azeri organisations said that another significant step was the press-conference and the joint statement on behalf of Human Rights House Network, which showed concern on the situation of Azerbaijan, including freedom of expression, freedom of association, human rights violation and free elections:

– It has been very encouraging that along with other international organizations, the Human Rights House Network will be watching the upcoming Parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan in November 2005 through the prism of democracy and human rights, the letter reads.

The Azeri NGOs regret the absence of a number of governmental representatives at the event that were invited.

–  The conference could have been a good opportunity for all the participants not only to find the answers to many questions, but also to possibly set the basis for future understanding and cooperation within the framework of Human Rights House Network. We appreciate the attendance of the official from the Ombudsman office, but the presence of the Ombudsman herself would have been a positive step in development of relations between the sectors, the nine Azeri organisations said.