On July 12 the Embassy of Royal Norway in Azerbaijan organized the meeting with the human rights defenders of Azerbaijan. During the meeting, there was discussed the current public political situation and oil incomes of Azerbaijan. The chair of the meeting, the Ambassador of Norway, Mr.Jon Ramberg (right) mentioned that the national policy should be aimed at “turning black gold into human gold”. (13-JUL-07)

Written by Shahla Ismailova/ HRH Baku on the basis of meeting discussions; photo from the website of the Embassy of Royal Norway

The participants of the meeting – the leaders of well known human rights organizations – gave comprehensive information about the issues of concern, mainly about the irrational and non-transparent distribution of financial resources from oil. Although the flow of oil money, big investments and overwealth should make Azerbaijani government responsible for rational distribution of resources, the major concern of the participants was the lack of such responsibility. It was also emphasized that the issues of democracy are at big blow because of oil interests of foreign countries.

The Ambassador also touched the issue of juridical system. He told that there are quite good chances to affect the system with the help the European Court. “Azerbaijan had 4 cases in the European Court for last year and this is important tool to impact the juridical system”, said the Ambassador.

Finally, the meeting participants discussed the problems of free elections, free assembly, freedom of speech, the size of the workspace for opposition. It was noted that though a year has passed since the income began to grow, there was no increase in salary of people since that.

The meeting participants concluded that there is big need for monitoring and report of oil revenues to resists corruption. It was also admitted that in order to achieve positive results and the development of the country the unification of efforts and the compromise with the government is necessary.