Representatives from established and emerging Human Rights Houses in ten countries are gathered in Baku, Azerbaijan, 7-10 September to support Azeri human rights defenders. UN Special Representative for human rights defenders, Hina Jilani, (right) will also attend the meetings, held in partnership with OSCE, ISHR and the Swedish Helsinki Committee. (06-SEP-05)
The Azeri government continue to restrict freedom of speech, press and assembly. NGOs, the opposition and independent media are under constant pressure. The situation is believed to worsen in the run-up to the Elections due 5 November.
To strengthen human rights work, a group of Azeri human rights NGOs is working to set up a Human Rights House in the country?s capital Baku together with the Human Rights House Foundation. The NGOs are part of the Human Rights House Network that is to meet in Baku 7-10 September.
Support Azeri defenders
The aim of the international meeting is to focus on the human rights situation in Azerbaijan and provide support to Azeri human rights defenders. UN Special Representative for rights defenders, Hina Jilani, will also attend the meeting. This is Jilanis first visit to the troubled Caucasus region.
The 2005 Human Rights House Network Meeting
Through gathering international human rights defenders in Baku, the HRH Network wishes to increase the respect and awareness of human rights, particularly in advance of Azerbaijan?s upcoming elections. Hence, the conference to be held on the 7th of September will focus on election monitoring in Azerbaijan and compare the situation with experiences from other countries in the HRH Network, such as Belarus, Bosnia, Croatia and Uganda.
Training of regional defenders
In addition to the conference and the annual HRH Network Meeting, 28 regional human rights activists from Azerbaijan, Georgia and the Russian Federation will participate in an interactive workshop, lead by the Geneva-based NGO International Service for Human Rights (ISHR). The workshop aims to make the activists familiar with different UN mechanisms, especially the appeal system.
First network meeting in Baku
Representatives from each of the currently eleven Human Rights Houses, established and emerging alike, meet annually to determine the strategies and priorities for the coming year. The aim is also to enhance co-operation and collaboration between organisations and strengthen the support and solidarity among them. In recent years, the established Human Rights Houses in Moscow, Bergen, Sarajevo, Warsaw and Oslo have hosted similar meetings. This is the first Network meeting to be organised by an emerging House – the Human Rights House of Baku.
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