On the 28-th of November, the leaders of human rights organizations Novella Jafaroglu, Arzu Abdullayeva, Saida Gojamanly, Zaliha Tahirova and Saadat Benanyarly organized a press conference in the International Press Center on the topic “Human Rights in Azerbaijan in 2007”. (29-NOV-07)
Written by Shahla Ismailova/HRH Baku on the basis of information from Novosti-Azerbaijan, Turan Info Agency; photos by Shahla Ismailova
The common opinion of the human rights defenders was that there was not any positive move in the area of human rights in Azerbaijan in 2007, on contrary the deterioration of human rights environment in the country is obvious.
According to Novella Jafaroglu (right), the Council of Europe is fully aware of the hard situation on human rights in Azerbaijan and on failed commitments of Azerbaijan.
Zaliha Tahirova (left) stated that today in Azerbaijan the human rights defenders and the journalists are the only actors doing anything for the human rights protection, but their capacities are very limited. She thinks that the human rights defenders must continue the “constructive criticism”, as there should be left some space for the dialogue with the officials, which always have the crucial word, no matter how much the national and international organization criticize.
Saadat Benanyarly (right) noted the huge gap between the salaries of policemen, judges, ministers, members of the parliament and the salaries of ordinary people, who can hardly make the two ends meet.
“Azerbaijan conducts itself the complete opposition of the European way,” said Saida Gojamanli (left). “To this day Azerbaijan has fulfilled none of the obligations it undertook. Imagine the U.S. Ambassador says ‘Azerbaijan is known not just for its oil, but also for its imprisoned journalists,’ this is a slap in our face. Azerbaijan must do something about this.”
Arzu Abdullayeva (right) highlighted the cases of human rights violations and tortures in the military army and stressed that there is no organization in the country which would guarantee the people’s protection.
The human rights defenders also commented on the sudden death of Faina Kungurova in prison, an active member of the Democratic Party, arrested on the 6-th of October on the accusation of drug storage. Although the official version of the death is related to her illness, the human rights defenders stated that the real reason of her death would some time be known to the public.
