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Human Rights House Foundation (HRHF) condemns the actions taken on 19 and 20 October 2019 by Azerbaijani authorities. We call upon Azerbaijani authorities to respect their international obligations and uphold fundamental rights.

Discover how Human Rights House Foundation protected and advanced the rights of human rights defenders, strengthened independent civil society, and supported a strong, active network of Human Rights Houses.

The Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Thorbjørn Jagland, has announced much-needed reforms to the human rights body’s “reprisal mechanism” – launched in May 2017 to ensure “human rights defenders… never face retribution for their principled stance.”

“Administrative detention of government critics is not related to committed offences but is a political tool of punishment for their political, social and media activities,” states EMDS in its report Politically Motivated Administrative Detentions.

Azerbaijani anti-corruption video blogger Mehman Huseynov has been released from prison, after serving a two-year sentence for defamation. This followed many years of repression by the authorities aimed at silencing him. On 26 December 2018, the Azerbaijani authorities put forward new criminal charges against him. These charges were dropped on 22 January 2019 following strong national and international protests.

Almost half of the 484 violations recorded relate to freedom of expression and the right to a fair trial, according to the Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Centre (EMDS), member of Human Rights House Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijani anti-corruption video blogger Mehman Huseynov has been released from prison, after serving a two-year sentence for defamation. This followed many years of repression by the authorities aimed at silencing him.

Speaking at the European Parliament, Azerbaijani human rights lawyer Fuad Aghayev raises how political bias in access to the Bar and politically motivated suspensions and disbarment have left only a handful of human rights lawyers to take politically sensitive cases.

Azerbaijani human rights lawyer Fuad Aghayev delivered the following statement to the European Parliament Subcommittee on Human Rights on 19 February 2019, as part of a hearing on attacks on the legal profession and lawyers defending human rights.