Civic Solidarity calls for immediate release of political prisoners in Azerbaijan
The Civic Solidarity Platform, a coalition of 65 human rights organisations from the OSCE region, issued a statement in which it called on the Azerbaijani authorities to stop the harassment of independent media and human rights defenders.
According to the statement, Azerbaijan’s six-month chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, Europe’s top human rights body, comes to an end this week. During this period Azerbaijan unleashed an unprecedented crackdown against civil society—including the imprisonment of human rights defenders and political activists who criticized the government.
“The chairmanship turned into a demonstration of strength for the Azerbaijani government. It showed that evil can be stronger than values. The government used the chairmanship in an organization which is based on human rights to prove to its citizens, and to the world, that money and power trump values,” said Azeri investigative journalist, Khadija Ismayilova.
According to the statement, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Thorbjørn Jagland, and its democratic member states must confront Azerbaijan and consider punitive measures in response to this crackdown. To date the Council of Europe has responded with nothing more than statements of condemnation. Azerbaijan actions are an attack to European institutions and values, and this must not go unnoticed.
The article notes the names of human rights activist Leyla Yunus, a journalist and human rights activist Rasul Jafarov, lawyer Intigam Alliev.