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Our protest on 12 June is taking place on the day of the opening in Baku of the first European Olympic Games, hosted by Azerbaijan. We will be calling for the release of detained human rights defenders, journalists and activists, and for the end of the repression against civil society.

Event at the 29th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council

Commencing on 12 June, Azerbaijan will host the inaugural European Olympic Games. Our event at the Human Rights Council will shine light on the severe restrictions on fundamental freedoms and the imprisonment of civil society, which risks turning these European Olympics into a sad symbol of repression.

Since 5 December 2014, the Azerbaijani investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova is in prison. She spent her 39th birthday in a prison on 27 May 2015. We repeat our call for her immediate and unconditional release.

(Brussels) – In recent years, Azerbaijani authorities have intensified a crackdown on civil society and devastated critical voices, without regard for domestic or international law. This crackdown is in stark contrast to the polished image of a modern and prosperous European state that President Ilham Aliyev has presented to outside observers.

Members and partners of the Human Rights House Network and the South Caucasus Network of Human Rights Defenders are dismayed by the sentences upheld against human rights defender Rasul Jafarov and against human rights lawyer Intigam Aliyev, two prominent and internationally respected voices of the Azerbaijani civil society. They call upon the Azerbaijani President to put an end to the unprecedented repression against civil society and release human rights defenders, journalists and activists.

Many human rights groups, including many members of the Human Rights House Network (HRHN) signed an open statement regarding the situation in Azerbaijan, based on which US-based NGOs wrote to Secretary of State John Kerry.

Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety (IRFS) appeal in court what they see as politically motivated charges by the Azerbaijani authorities. Not releasing vital proof confiscated by the prosecutor is a violation of the right to a fair trail.

“There is no greater injustice than that which is perpetrated in the name of the law,” stated the human rights defender Intigam Aliyev after the hearing in the case against him on 31 March in The Baku Court on Grave Crimes.

The 28th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council ended on Friday, 27 March 2015. It left civil society with mixed feelings; the Council did not address worrying human rights situations. However, they managed to establish new standards, in particular on the protection of privacy.