The US State Department released a report on Azerbaijan for 2005. According to the secretary the Azerbaijan’s November parliamentary elections, while an improvement in some areas, failed to meet a number of international standards. There were numerous credible reports of local officials interfering with the campaign process and misusing state resources, limited freedom of assembly, disproportionate use of force by police to disrupt rallies, and fraud and major irregularities in vote counting and tabulation. Thus far, additional actions taken during the post-election grievance process have not fully addressed the shortcomings of the electoral process”. (12-MAR-2006)

Written by HRH Baku/Shahla Ismailova.

On the 8-th of March the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (US State Department) released country reports of Human Rights Practices. The government´s human rights record remained poor, and it continued to commit numerous abuses. The November 6 parliamentary elections strongly influenced the government´s human rights performance. The report includes the following human rights problems as


• restricted right of citizens to peacefully change their government
• torture and beating of persons in custody, leading to four deaths
• arbitrary arrest and detention, particularly of political opponents
• harsh and life-threatening prison conditions
• police impunity
• lengthy pretrial detention
• pervasive corruption in the judiciary
• some restrictions of privacy rights
• periodic interference with media freedom
• excessive use of force to disperse demonstrations
• limited instances of violence and societal discrimination against women
• trafficking in persons
• limited workers´ rights

Prisons
Overcrowding, inadequate nutrition, and poor medical care combined to make the spread of infectious diseases a serious problem. Despite recent improvements to prison infrastructure, prisons, generally Soviet-era facilities, did not meet international standards. In maximum-security facilities, authorities limited physical exercise for prisoners as well as visits by attorneys and family members. Some pretrial detainees were reportedly held in “separation cells,” often located in basements, to conceal evidence of physical abuse and where food and sleep reportedly were denied to elicit confessions.

Arrest and detention
The law states that persons who are detained, arrested, or accused of a crime should be advised immediately of their rights and reason for arrest and accorded due process of law; however, the government did not respect these provisions in practice. Arbitrary arrest, often on spurious charges of resisting the police, remained a common problem throughout the year.

The law provides for access to a lawyer from the time of detention; in reality, access to lawyers was poor, particularly outside of Baku. Although guaranteed by law, in practice indigent detainees did not have access to lawyers. Authorities often restricted family member visits and withheld information about detainees; frequently, days passed before families could obtain any information about detained relatives. Individuals were sometimes permitted to “vouch” for detainees, enabling their conditional release during pretrial investigation; however, there was no formal, functioning bail system. At times politically sensitive suspects were held incommunicado for several hours and sometimes days while in police custody.

Freedom of speech and press
The law provides for freedom of speech and of the press and specifically prohibits press censorship; the government often did not respect these rights in practice.
During the year many opposition and government-run newspapers reduced circulation, and several, including prominent opposition newspaper Yeni Musavat, reduced frequency. Moderate independent newspapers Echo and Zerkalo, however, maintained their circulation. Some private television channels broadcast the views of both government and opposition officials, but their programs were not available in all parts of the country. Space TV and ANS TV, popular channels regarded as independent, provided balanced news coverage, especially of the parliamentary elections.

Harassment and violence against individual journalists continued. The Media Council, an independent NGO, reported that 40 journalists faced physical attack or harassment during the 6-month period preceding the November parliamentary election. During the year police officers beat three local journalists from independent and opposition newspapers covering unauthorized political rallies in the capital, despite being clearly identifiable as members of the press.

Freedom of assembly
The law provides for freedom of assembly; however, the government restricted this right in practice. On May 11, the president issued a decree ordering the government to hold free and fair parliamentary elections in November consistent with international standards. In compliance with the decree, on June 4, the government partially restored the constitutional right to freedom of assembly, which had not been permitted since the demonstrations following the 2003 presidential election. However, the government restricted implementation of this right in the period before the November elections. The government interpreted the law to require individuals and political parties to obtain permission from the authorities in order to assemble and organize demonstrations.

Elections and political participation
The government held national parliamentary elections on November 6. The OSCE´s preliminary election assessment concluded that the elections did not meet a number of the country´s OSCE commitments and COE standards for democratic elections.

Fraud and major irregularities marred the vote counting and tabulation process. International observers assessed the ballot counting process as bad or very bad in 43 percent of polling stations observed, reporting that election precinct officials refused to count election ballots in front of them and attempted to complete official tabulation protocols behind closed doors. In one precinct, observers witnessed election commission members taking instructions from an unidentified person in the polling station´s basement. In Ganja international observers witnessed a precinct chairwoman writing the vote tally in pencil, which would have given officials the ability to alter the final results. In Shamkir observers witnessed a precinct chairwoman hide an already completed election protocol after an unidentified person handed it to her. On election night in Baku, a candidate objecting to the fraudulent vote counting procedure at a polling station in his district was detained, along with his wife, at a local police station for more than an hour. International observers reported that precinct-level voting results were not posted in 54 percent of the counts observed.

The CEC and constitutional court actions did not fully address reports of fraud and other irregularities or allay the concerns of the international community about the extent to which the results fully reflected the will of the people.

Government corruption and transparency
The law penalizes corruption by outlawing bribery; however, there was widespread public perception of corruption throughout all facets of society, including the civil service, government ministries, and the highest levels of government. According to the prosecutor general´s office, criminal cases related to corruption were opened during the year, specifically on bribery charges; however, these cases had little or no impact on the prevalence of bribery and corruption in the country.

Full text of the report is available at the website of US Department of State