Open Letter to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe and the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers about the increasing repression against civil society and human rights defenders in Azerbaijan
Excellencies,
AsAzerbaijan currently holds the Presidency of the Council of Europe Committee ofMinisters, the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, jointprogramme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) andthe World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), expresses its deepestconcern about the increasing repression of civil society organisations andhuman rights defenders in the country, in violation of Articles 1, 3, 5, 6, 7,10, 11, 13 and 14 of the European Convention of Human Rights. The Observatorytherefore urges the Secretary General of the Council of Europe as well asmembers of the Committee of Ministers to take urgent measures about thissituation, on the basis of the Rules of Procedure of the Committee.
On August 8, 2014, prosecutors beganto search the apartment of Mr. Intigam Aliyev, Head of the LegalEducation Society, as well as the premises of the organisation. Before thesesearches, Mr. Aliev had been summoned to the Investigation Department forSerious Crimes of the Prosecutor General's Office as a witness. On the sameday, the Nasimi District Court sentenced Mr. Intigam Aliyev to three months'detention under Articles 213.1 of the Criminal Code (“evasion of taxes orcontributions for compulsory social insurance in significant amount”), 308.2(“abuse of power”), and 192.2 (“illegal business”).
Also on August 8, the office of theInstitute of Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS) was blocked by the police andlater searched, and documents and equipment were confiscated. On August 5, theborder guards had not permitted the Director of IRFS, Mr. Emin Huseinov,to leave to Turkey for medical treatment.
Moreover, on August 6, human rightsdefenders Malahat Nasibova and Ilgar Nasibov, respectively Headand member of the Resource Center for Democracy in Nakhchivan, reported thatunknown individuals tried to open and unlock the door of their apartment,damaging the mechanism.
Previously, on August 2, 2014 inBaku, Mr. Rasul Jafarov, an active participant in "Sing forDemocracy" and "Art for Democracy", was put on pre-trialdetention for three months pending investigation into trumped-up charges of“tax evasion”, “illegal entrepreneurship” and “abuse of authority” (under Articles213, 192 and 308.2 of the Penal Code respectively). On July 30, 2014, Ms. LeylaYunus, Director of the Institute of Peace and Democracy (IPD) and a memberof OMCT General Assembly, was charged with “treason” (Article 274 of theCriminal Code), “large-scale fraud” (Article (178.3.2), “forgery” (Article320), “tax evasion” (Article 213), and “illegal business” (Article 192), andsentenced to three months pre-trial detention. Her husband, Mr. Arif Yunusov,Head of the Conflictology Department of IPD, faces similar charges of “treason”and “fraud”, and was also placed in pre-trial detention for three months onAugust 5. The charges against Mr. Jafarov and part of the charges against Ms.Yunus are similar to the accusations which were brought against Mr. Anar Mammadli, Chairperson of theElection Monitoring and Democracy Studies Centre (EMDSC), and Mr. Bashir Suleymani, Executive Director ofEMDSC. Both were sentenced for “tax evasion”, “illegal entrepreneurship”, and“abuse of authority” respectively to 5,5 years' and 3,5 years' imprisonment onMay 26, 2014 by the Court on Grave Crimes.
The Secretary General of the Councilof Europe met many of these human rights defenders and NGO representativesduring his recent visit to Azerbaijan this May, and they had expressed theirconcern about possible negative developments.
In addition, over the past months, the Parliament ofAzerbaijan adopted a set of amendments to the law on NGOs, aiming at seriouslyrestricting NGO work. The new NGO law now provides theauthorities with additional powers for temporary suspension and permanentbanning of national and foreign NGOs, and introduces additional administrativerequirements and increased checks. Non-registered NGOs cannot be consideredrecipients of grants any more. While working under non-registered grants is anadministrative offence, the courts now tend to consider such funds as personalincome in an attempt to persecute their recipients for tax evasion undercriminal law[1]. In addition, the bankaccounts of several NGOs and representatives were reportedly frozen uponrequest of the General Prosecutor’s Office, including those of the Media RightsInstitute, the Democratic Institutions and Human Rights Public Union, theDemocracy and Human Rights Resource Center, the Azerbaijan Lawyers Association,and the Center for National and International Studies.
All these cases are part of apattern of harassment and intimidation by the authorities aimed at sanctioningand silencing civil society activists who speak up against human rights abusescommitted by the authorities in Azerbaijan. On August 7, 2014, the Council ofEurope Commissioner for Human Rights statedthat “by stifling dissent, Azerbaijan is failing to comply with itsinternational obligations which require safeguarding freedom of expression,assembly and association”, and recommended that “Azerbaijan reverse thesituation”, highlighting that “a first step would be to free all those detainedbecause of the views they expressed”[2].
While it currently holds thePresidency of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers, Azerbaijantherefore continues to blatantly violate most of the provisions of the EuropeanConvention of Human Rights, the provisions of the Committee of Ministers'Declaration on Human Rights Defenders of February 6, 2008, as well asResolution 1660(2009) and Recommendation 1866(2009) of the ParliamentaryAssembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
In light of this situation,the Observatory requests the Secretary General of the Council of Europe and theCouncil of Europe Committee of Ministers to take swift measures under theCommittee Rules of Procedure to condemn the situation of human rights defendersand NGOs in Azerbaijan.
The Observatory requests in particular:
- the Secretary General andmembers of the Committee of Ministers to urgently convoke a Committee sessionon the situation of human rights defenders in Azerbaijan, and to introduce adraft resolution condemning the ongoing violations, as provided by Articles1.b and 4 of the Committee Rules of Procedure;
- the Secretary General toreport to the Committee of Ministers about the systematic violations of therights of human rights defenders and NGOs in Azerbaijan, according to Article21.b of the Committee Rules of Procedure;
- the Secretary General andmembers of the Committee of Ministers to publicly condemn all the violationsagainst human rights defenders and NGOs in Azerbaijan.
In the hope that you willbe able to act expeditiously in the framework of your respective mandates, weremain at your disposal for any further information.
Yours sincerely,
Karim LAHIDJI GeraldSTABEROCK
FIDH President OMCTSecretary General
[1] For more information, seeObservatory Press Release of August 6, 2014.
[2] See http://www.coe.int/en/web/commissioner/-/concerns-over-the-situation-of-human-rights-defenders-in-azerbaijan