Latest

On October 7, Board Chair of Human Rights House Tbilisi Nino Elbakidze presented the report on the state of human rights in Georgia at the presentation of the Universal Periodic Report (UPR) in the UN Human Rights Council. Two of HRHT member organizations – Article 42 of the Constitution and Georgian Center for the Rehabilitation of Torture Victims (GCRT) prepared the report for the UPR with the support of the Geneva Office of the Human Rights House Foundation.

On August 13, 2015 Baku Court on Grave Crimes passed verdict on famous Azerbaijan human rights defender Leyla Yunus and sentenced her to 8 years and 5 months imprisonment; her husband Arif Yunus was sent to prison for 7 years, if nothing will be changed. According to the verdict, their bank accounts were frozen; their property in Azerbaijan, Turkey and Czech Republic will be confiscated. Two years after completion of imprisonment term they will be banned to occupy high positions.

Inhabitants of the barracks in Mirtskhulava Street # 9/11, Tbilisi were evicted by compulsory measures. Enforcement police officers and their transportation service employees were mobilized on the site. Furniture and belongings of the inhabitants were transported by the vehicles of the National Bureau of Enforcement. Old people bounded to beds were taken out of the building by hand-borrows. Court judgment on compulsory eviction was executed without violence.

Civil society has less and less space to breathe or even exist in many countries, let alone participate in public life. Authorities are using restrictions as a pretext to prosecute and imprison human rights defenders, criminalising the right to be a human rights defender, and the right to assemble and associate.

Criminalisation and repression of human rights defenders is not the right way forward for Europe. Watch the video of the panel debate here!

They have been silenced, so the Network will tell their story. Human Rights House Network, united in Oslo to celebrate its 20th year, was walking to raise awareness of those who are not free to walk.

Today, a court in Azerbaijan sentenced Leyla Yunus and her husband Arif Yunus to many years in prison. They are long-time civil society actors. Their sentencing today is a symbol of the targeted repression against leading civil society voices in Azerbaijan since the presidential election of October 2013.

On July 24, 2015 Baku Court on Grave Crimes held pre-trial session into the case of Khadija Ismaylova, Azerbaijan investigative journalist. The three member court collegium considered motions of the parties. Not everybody could attend the session due to small space in the court room and high number of attendees.

On July 15, Baku Court on Grave Crimes held hearing into the cases of Leyla and Arif Yunus, famous couple of Azerbaijan human rights defenders. Leyla is charged for illegal entrepreneurship, evasion from payment of taxes, fabrication of documents and swindle. The last charge is imposed on her husband too. The prosecutor’s office blames them in high treason too, though it is a separate case and preliminary investigation is still going on.