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Alaif Hasanov has fought at every level of the court system against his expulsion from the Azerbaijani Bar Association, which came as a result of him defending political prisoners.

The President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, met top EU officials in Brussels on 6 February. NGOs viewed the visit as an opportunity for the EU to send a clear message on human rights.

The Council of Europe has “deplored the use of criminal laws against journalists and bloggers” in Azerbaijan, with the Parliamentary Assembly voting overwhelmingly for strong amendments in its recent resolution on protecting journalists.

The persecution of Crimean Tatars and human rights defenders has been expanding to arrests of the human rights lawyers that defend their rights. Crimean Tatar lawyer Emil Kurbedinov and his client Crimean Tatar activist Seyran Saliev, now released, were arrested and detained for 10 days and 12 days respectively.

Parliamentarians from the 47 Member-States of the Council of Europe met this week in Strasbourg, but the Russian delegates are staying in Moscow. They should stay there until they are willing to talk about and adhere to human rights.

In November 2016, the Rafto Foundation celebrated 30 years of supporting human rights defenders. Rafto has awarded the Rafto Prize for Human Rights to 30 human rights defenders during these years, three of whom later won the Nobel Peace Prize.

It is not a good one. The UN expert on assembly and association, Maina Kiai, recognises this, and has dedicated his final report to the UN promoting how civil society participation has improved societies globally. He invites human rights organisations to give input to this report, with an extended deadline of 15 February.

From 12 February, people from 80 countries will be able to travel to Belarus without a visa, for five days at a time. While some may start planning their vacations, Belarusian human rights defenders look at what this means for civil society.

On 4 January, Magomed Daudov, the speaker of the Chechen Parliament, posted on Instagram an image of a dog with its tongue tied in an apparent threatening caricature of Caucasian Knot editor-in-chief Grigory Shvedov. HRHF calls on the the local and Russian Federal authorities to condemn the threat.