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“To solve women’s problems the women’s rights organizations should be stronger and more united in Azerbaijan” was the initial conclusion of the Women’s Forum “Problems and Perspectives” organized in June by Women’s Association for Rational Development. The women’s rights situation and the problems were discussed with the participation of 40 women’s organizations, funding institutions and international organizations and set the foundation of the new Women’s Network. (03-JUL-2006)

Despite of the long term hunger strike by the students of the Independent Republic of Azerbaijan University that was joined by the parents, the Ministry of Education has not made any concrete steps in resolution of the students’ problem. Because of hard health condition, the students changed the form of protest from hunger strike to the “sitting strike” (02-JUL-2006)
 

The Freedom House released the report on a “governance gap” in energy-rich states in the Caucasus and Central Asia. The Nations in Transit 2006 report characterizes Azerbaijani government as an “authoritarian regime” and “endemic corruption in every sector continues to undermine civil society” (29-JUN-2006)

The students from Independent Republic of Azerbaijan University have been on the hunger strike since the 1-st of June 2006 with the demand to continue their education in other universities of Republic of Azerbaijan as the Independent Republic of Azerbaijan University has been closed. The strikers go on the strike despite of the deteriorated health condition and the external pressure in the form of strengthened police regime. (17-JUN-2006)
 

On the 13-th of May there were held rerun Parliamentary elections in 10 districts of Republic of Azerbaijan. Despite of hundreds protocols on human rights violations, falsifications and irregularities, the delegation of international organizations recognized the May elections “a progress in the voting process” in comparison to November elections. (21-MAY-2006)

Prior to the April visit of president Aliev to USA, a group of human rights organizations in the Republic of Azerbaijan sent the joint letter to the US President George W. Bush on the poor human rights situation in Republic of Azerbaijan. In addition Human Rights Watch called the US President to urge the Azerbaijani leader to end harassment of the political opposition and to establish the groundwork for legitimate future elections. (01-MAY-2006)
 

13 May 2006 is the day of re-run Parliamentary Elections in 10 districts of Republic of Azerbaijan. However there is not observed any special interest to the Parliamentary elections, as the society considers that the major balance or rather the disbalance of political forces have already been outlined and the elections or rather fight over 10 seats cannot bring major changes. The majority of human rights defenders believe that, the lack of attention both by the national and international observers create additional opportunities for obvious fraud on elections and numerous human rights violations. (15-APR-2006)
 

Azerbaijani opposition, which is living the uneasy post-election period (November 2005) and at the same time pre-election period (repeated elections in May 2006), undergoes certain transformations. Musavat party plans restructuring and adoption of new programmes on the congress in May. The party leader clarifies the cooperation strategy within the party. The classical wing of PPFA transformed into the Classical Popular Front Party with new programme and charter. The political Azadlig Bloc, which was transformed from the election bloc in last February, plans to create a single headquarters to monitor elections, though not participating in them. (26-MAR-2006)
 

The US State Department released a report on Republic of Azerbaijan for 2005. According to the secretary the Azerbaijan’s November parliamentary elections, while an improvement in some areas, failed to meet a number of international standards. There were numerous credible reports of local officials interfering with the campaign process and misusing state resources, limited freedom of assembly, disproportionate use of force by police to disrupt rallies, and fraud and major irregularities in vote counting and tabulation. Thus far, additional actions taken during the post-election grievance process have not fully addressed the shortcomings of the electoral process”. (12-MAR-2006)