Herkel stressed that as a co-rapporteur he should be at the post for five years. However, this is his sixth year and he regrets the problems he witnessed during this period.
The co-rapporteur noted that one of the problems is the government’s failure to release Eynulla Fatullayev on the basis of the decision of the European Court of Human Rights, and this creates a negative situation in the run-up to the parliamentary elections.
Herkel added that he will leave the post of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Monitoring Committee co-rapporteur on 24 June. “I will say my final words on that date,” said Herkel.
On that same June 24 PACE adopted Resolution 1750 on the functioning of democratic institutions in Azerbaijan. Toghether with ARTICLE 19, the Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety, and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, the Human Rights House Foundation welcome the adoption of the resolution in a joint statement and call upon the Azerbaijani government to implement the recommendations contained in the resolution, and urge PACE to sustain its efforts to monitor the human rights situation in Azerbaijan.
The organisations signing the statement took part in a 21-24 June delegation to the Council of Europe where our concerns regarding the serious and widespread human rights violations that persist in Azerbaijan nearly ten years after the country’s accession to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) were expressed. As highlighted in the report debated in the 24 June PACE session, Document 12270, the rights to freedom of expression, assembly, and association are particularly restricted in Azerbaijan, and Azerbaijani elections have consistently failed to meet European standards for fair and free elections.
Documents:
