Latest

On 18 and 19 November, the two bloggers – Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizade were released after 16 months of detention. The releases were conditional. HRHN together with many other international rights groups has since their detention in July 2009 called on the Azerbaijani government to free the two bloggers. In their video blogg after their release, the bloggers thanks all organizations and persons for their support during their imprisonments.

Mobile election monitoring group in the Republic of Azerbaijan, consisting of members of the Human Rights House Network, regrets the fact that the parliamentary elections in the Republic of Azerbaijan cannot be considered free and fair because of the widespread irregularities and fraudulent practices.

The HRHN delegation to support human rights defenders and organisations during the parliamentary election in the Republic of Azerbaijan reports about detentions of election observers, right, in Surakhani District outside Baku.

In the build-up to the 7 November parliamentary elections in the Republic of Azerbaijan, the credibility of the electoral process has reached an all-time low. The usual obstacles – including voter intimidation, harassment of opposition, biased media, low turnout, vote buying, extensive use of administrative resources by the ruling party for campaigning purposes, police interference – are all expected to happen again.

Eleven organisations have issued a joint open letter to President Aliyev expressing strong concern regarding the continued imprisonment of Editor-in-chief Eynulla Fatullayev, which constitutes a breach of the Republic of Azerbaijan’s international legal obligations and a violation of Mr Fatullayev’s rights.

Human Rights House Foundation and members of the South Caucasus Network of Human Rights Defenders are concerned about the restrictions on the freedom of assembly and association in the South Caucasus and call upon the Organisation for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE) and its Member States to give priority to strengthen mechanism, ensuring that the right to freedom of association and peaceful assembly are respected.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has found Republic of Azerbaijan guilty of violating the rights of Flora Karimova, an erstwhile joint candidate of the “Azadlig” Election Bloc, a coalition of major opposition parties for the 2005 parliamentary elections.

On 23 September, the participants of the Annual Meeting of the Human Rights House Network in Vilnius adopted a statement on the Republic of Azerbaijan, calling the country authorities to take measures to meet international human rights and, particularly, freedom of expression obligations.

A world premiere on a new documentary by renowned Norwegian film maker Erling Borgen and an exhibition of pictures by the independent Belarusian newspaper Nasha Niva’s photographer Julia Darashkevich topped the programme on the first day of HRHN’s annual meeting.