|
November 6, 2024 —
The undersigned
human rights organisations call on the participants of the
forthcoming European Political Community Summit to address the
climate of unprecedented repression in Azerbaijan and to demand the
release of Anar Mammadli and other human rights defenders, civil
society activists, environmental activists and journalists whose
arrests are politically motivated.
Less than a week before the
opening of the 29th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change in Baku, Azerbaijan, President
Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan is expected to attend the Summit of the
European Political Community in Budapest, Hungary, on November 7,
2024.
The year 2024 is marked by a
notable intensification of repression in Azerbaijan, occurring in the
aftermath of the presidential election on February 7, 2024 and the
parliamentary elections on September 1, 2024, leading to
unprecedented
levels of repression in the country.
At the time of writing, almost no independent civil society actors
remain free in the country, and the leadership of independent media
outlets has been arrested, while the authorities have increased
pressure on the legal profession and academics.
On April 29, 2024 winner of
the 2014 Vaclav Havel Award of the Council of Europe, human rights
defender Anar
Mammadli,
was arrested (again). He was sentenced to pre-trial detention on
fabricated charges. His detention is emblematic of the increase of
repression in 2024: Anar Mammadli is the leader of the only
independent election monitoring organisation in the country and is a
co-founder of the Climate Justice Initiative, a coalition of
independent environmental and human rights organisations that aimed
at joining forces in view of COP29. His arrest intervened after his
organisation published its preliminary findings on the conduct of the
presidential elections and right after the establishment
of the Climate Justice Initiative was announced. The United Nations
Special Rapporteur on environmental defenders recognised
Anar Mammadli’s detention as unlawful and has called for his
immediate release.
Like other
prisoners of conscience, Anar
Mammadli’s health has seriously deteriorated
over the past six months. We fear that if Anar Mammadli's health
concerns remain unaddressed while in detention, they may have
irreparable effects on his physical and mental health.
As underlined
by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders,
the country is witnessing an “alarming wave of arrests and criminal
cases against human rights defenders and journalists”, of whom, in
addition to Anar Mammadli, the following individuals are particularly
emblematic of the unprecedented repression:
-
Famil
Khalilov
is a civic activist with a considerable following on social media.
He is held in conditions that fail to address his needs as a person
with a disability. These concerns are further compounded considering
the “deplorable state of affairs”
of places of
detention, as recently highlighted
by the Committee for the Prevention of Torture;
-
Bahruz
Samadov
is a researcher and activist specialising in authoritarianism. His
written work offers a critical analysis of Azerbaijan’s regional
and foreign policy.
The
prosecution of Bahruz
Samadov, associated to targeting other scholars, reveals a new
trend, in the will to silence
young academics
and writers who through their research criticise Azerbaijan’s
regional and foreign policy;
-
Gubad
Ibadoghlu
is a distinguished academic and anti-corruption expert who has
taught and conducted research on public finance management and good
governance in Azerbaijan and abroad, most recently at the London
School of Economics. Since 2014, he has been residing in exile. In
July 2023, he returned to Azerbaijan to visit his family but was
promptly and violently arrested. Following a nine-month period of
pre-trial detention, he was placed in house arrest. He remains in
this situation until today, as he awaits trial. If convicted, he
could face up to 17 years imprisonment;
-
The trade union activist,
Afiaddin
Mammadov,
has been held in pre-trial detention since August 2023 and is
currently facing criminal charges that could result in a 11-year
prison sentence;
-
At the same time, Azerbaijani
authorities cracked down on independent media, raiding and shutting
down the media outlets Abzas
Media, Toplum TV, and Kanal 13.
Journalists who were arrested during the raids are held in pre-trial
detention on various criminal charges, including the Abzas Media
Director, human rights defender and journalist, Ulvi
Hasanli;
woman human rights defender and journalist, Editor-in-Chief of Abzas
Media Sevinj
Vagifgizi;
Head of Institute for Democratic Initiatives, human rights defender
Akif
Gurbanov;
the founder of Toplum TV Alaskar
Mammadli;
Aziz
Orujev,
Director of Kanal 13; journalist
Shamo Eminov
of Kanal
13;
women human
rights defenders and journalists
Elnara
Gasimova,
Nargiz
Absalamova;
and independent
multimedia journalist
Ali
Zeynalov;
-
Political
activists Tofig
Yagublu
and Ruslan
Izzatli,
human rights defender and investigative journalist Hafiz
Babali
are
also among individuals who remain in detention.
Moreover,
the Mammadli
Group of cases
continues to be
examined by the Committee
of Ministers. The cases in question pertain to prominent human rights
defenders, civil society leaders and a journalist who were all
subjected to arrests and detentions between 2013 and 2016. The
European Court of Human Rights found that these actions constituted a
misuse of criminal law, which was intended to punish and silence them
for their human rights and journalistic activities. As recently
observed
by a group of distinguished legal and human rights NGOs,
the Court also “established that these cases reflected a troubling
pattern of arbitrary arrests and detentions of government critics,
civil society activists and human rights defenders through
retaliatory prosecutions and misuse of criminal law in defiance of
the rule of law, and the actions of the State gave rise to a risk of
further repetitive applications (Aliyev
v Azerbaijan,
§ 223)”.
Against the
backdrop of the unprecedented levels of repression, the European
Union issued several statements over the crackdown, referring
to “an unsettling rise of arrests of independent journalists, human
rights defenders, and political activists on politically motivated
charges”.
In a context of repression
aimed at the total silencing of independent civil society, targeting
in particular human rights defenders and lawyers, journalists and
media workers, independent academics and researchers, as well as
political activists and environmental activists, we call on the
participants of the next Summit of the European Political Community
to:
-
Demand
that all participating States comply with their human rights
obligations as members of the Council of Europe, including and
especially Azerbaijan, in particular to respect the principles of
the European Court of Human Rights by implementing its judgments;
-
In
the margins of the Summit
and in bilateral meetings with Azerbaijani representatives, call for
the release
of Anar Mammadli and other human rights defenders, civil society and
environmental activists, and journalists whose arrests are
politically motivated;
-
Call
for a complete review of legislation targeting human rights
defenders and civil society and criminalising their activities, in
line with the findings of the Venice Commission of the Council of
Europe.
In a joint
statement,
international and regional human rights experts called upon
Azerbaijani authorities “to end any form of harassment against
critics; to immediately and unconditionally release those in
arbitrary detention; and to guarantee an enabling environment for
human rights-related activities more broadly”. The European
Political Community Summit offers an opportunity to demand
from Azerbaijani authorities to comply with the country’s human
rights obligations.
Sincerely yours,
|
