Director of Human Rights Watch Meets with Azerbaijani NGOs

Director of Human Rights Watch Kenneth Roth  had a 3 days visit to Azerbaijan. On 16 July he had a meeting with a few key human rights NGO-s to get updated on human rights situation in Azerbaijan. The meeting also aimed at discussing political situation in Azerbaijan one year prior to the Presidential Elections 2008. (17-JUL-07)

Written by Shahla Ismailova/ HRH Baku on the basis of meeting discussions

It should be noted that among 9 meeting participants, 4 people were the leaders of organizations, which had been selected to the Human Rights House Baku.

The meeting discussion included, but were not limited to the topics of media situation, women’s rights, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, political prisoners, electoral freedom, courts, tortures, transitional justice, etc.

The history of human rights and political pressure was covered by Ilgar Ibrahimoglu (right), head of DEVAMM, who used to be one of the people under pressure since the presidential elections 2003. He expressed his concern about the “obvious signs of crisis” in the public political situation, which is typical prior to elections. I.Ibrahimoglu emphasized the importance and necessity of international attention to Azerbaijan in such a crucial period and thanked Human Rights Watch for permanent strict and unchanging policy in the area of human rights.

Political prisoners and tortures
The human rights situation was evaluated negatively by the national human rights organizations. The existing problems in freedom of speech and freedom of assembly cause the atmosphere of fear and instability in the country.

Saida Gojamanly (right), director of the Bureau of Human Rights and Law Respect expressed her concern regarding the political prisoners, particularly the sick prisoners, who are not given a proper medical treatment, such as Ali Insanov, Mushvig Madatov. She submitted the HRW director the list of political prisoners as well as a separate list of sick prisoners.

Elchin Behbutov, head of the Committee Against Tortures, drew attention to the existence of tortures applied to the political prisoners. He noted that annually 5-6 people die of tortures, but there is no proper investigation on the cases. The perpetrators of tortures remain unpunished, moreover “those who torture prisoners get promoted to higher ranks or positions. Among the “awarded” perpetrators are high ranking officials Vilayat Eyvazov, Mamed Mikayilov, Isa Najafov.”.

Murad Sadaddinov, the head of Azerbaijan of Democracy Development and Human Rights Protection, drew the attention of the HRW director to the recent speech of president Ilham Aliyev about the unpunishment of police officers for violence. M.Sadaddinov said “We are afraid that this speech is a hint to police, especially in such a sensitive period prior to elections. The history may repeat.”

Courts and corruption
Sahib Mammadov (right), the chair of the Citizens’ Labor Rights Protection League, gave comprehensive information about the situation with the strategic courts and the cases of landowners, particularly those whose lands had been confiscated by BP. He also presented several articles, related to the freedom of assembly, property rights, freedom of speech, etc.

In his own turn, Eldar Zeynalov, the director of Human Rights Center of Azerbaijan, highlighted the issues of transitional justice. He mentioned that the recent speech of the president is “a step back even from the perspective of transitional justice’. Eldar Zeynalov also condemned the corruption in Azerbaijan. “The country is entirely corrupted. No official avoided it, as each of them depend on one another. As a matter of fact, Ali Insanov and Farhad Aliyev [ex-ministers, currently imprisoned] were a part of this system, as the funds were redistributed among them for money-laundering”, said E.Zeynalov.

The problem of corruption was strengthened by Saadat Benanyarly (right), the head of Azerbaijan National Group of International Society for Human Rights. In addition to her speech, Saadat Benanyarly gave the facts and figures on how the oil money are currently “used” in Azerbaijan. She stressed that the money-laundering reaches the extreme under quite legal actions such as “construction of bridges, road repairs, restoration of architectural buildings, etc”.

Women’s rights and NGOs
Shahla Ismailova, chairwoman of Women’s Association for Rational Development, informed the meeting participants about the current women’s rights situation as well as the problems faced by women’s rights NGO-s. She emphasized the difficulties with the registration of national non-governmental organizations and long-term procedures, necessary to undergo for registration.

Emin Huseynov (right), the director of the Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety, reminded about the pressure on media as well as brought numerous facts on the monopolistic strategies of the government to suppress media. According to the survey results, highlighted by Emin Huseynov, the population of Azerbaijan receives 92% of information from TV, 4% from radio, and the remaining 4% from press. “However, the absence of independent TV channels, lack of true reliable information on TV, lack of access of political parties to TV – make the population deprived of the pluralism”, noted E.Huseynov.