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Despite being a member of such bodies as the Human Rights Council and Council of Europe, several independent bodies, such as Human Rights Watch, have deemed human rights in Azerbaijan to be subpar at best. Democratic and personal freedoms have been diminished by the government, wary of revolutions in Central Asia spreading to home turf.
The 2008 Freedom in the World report, which tries to measure the degree of democracy and political freedom in the world, labeled Azerbaijan a Not Free country, with low scores in both Political Rights and Civil Liberties sections.
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Although Azerbaijan is nominally a representative democracy, recent elections there have widely been contested as fraudulent and 'seriously flawed.' Azerbaijani media coverage of the election is considered to be overwhelmingly biased in favor of the administration. Also, former President, Heidar Aliyev, is known to have filled the Central and Local electoral commissions with government supporters prior to various key elections since 2003 [1]. Azerbaijani non-governmental bodies were also banned from monitoring the vote. Irregular incidents such as voting chiefs running off with the ballots, ballot stuffing, multiple voting, and vote-tampering were recorded by international monitors.
Up until June 2005, the Azerbaijani people did not enjoy freedom of assembly. The blanket ban on opposition gatherings was lifted after national pressure, but events leading up to parliamentary elections later that year proved this to be merely a nominal change for a very short time. The authorities denied opposition supporters the right to demonstrate or hold rallies in or near any city centres. Those attending opposition rallies that had not been sanctioned by the government were beaten and arrested in mass. Police were known to detain opposition activists, in an attempt to 'convince' them into giving up their political work. Youth movement members and opposition members were detained for conspiring to overthrow the government, a charge that has not been substantiated. After the elections not a single opposition rally was allowed.
In Azerbaijan, torture, police abuse, and excessive use of force are rife. Defendants are often subjected to severe beating to try to coerce a confession, although electric shock, threats of rape, and threats against members of the defendant's family are also used as torture. Torture is less prevalent in post-detention prison facilities, although former inmates have alleged that security forces beat hundreds of prisoners by forcing them to run through a gauntlet, whereby they were beaten with batons. The government have taken no action against torture, or against officials who partake in torture; indeed, Vilayat Eyvazov, the head of the Organized Crime Unit, was named Deputy Interior Minister in 2005.
International pressure has been exerted on Azerbaijan to release its number of political prisoners. Since joining the Council of Europe, the Azerbaijani government have released one hundred political prisoners, but many remain in custody, and opposition supporters continue to be detained without proof of wrongdoing. A number of Tylish national minority activists including Novruzali Mammadov, Atakhan Abilov, Alikram Hummatov are recognized as political prisoners or refugees by the international organizations.[1][2]
In March 2011, opposition activists Bakhtiyar Hajiyev and Jabbar Savalan were arrested after they helped to organize Arab Spring-style protests through Facebook. Both were given prison terms on unrelated charges. Their arrests were protested by the European Parliament,[3] Human Rights Watch,[3] and Index on Censorship.[4] Amnesty International named both men prisoners of conscience and called for their immediate release.[5][6]
Azerbaijan is ranked 'Not Free' by Freedom House in its annual Freedom of the Press survey with a score of 79 out of 100. The authorities use a range of measures to restrict freedom of the media within the country. Opposition and independent media outlets have their access to print-houses and distribution networks limited, or can find themselves facing defamation charges and crippling fines. Most Azerbaijanis receive their information from mainstream television, which is unswervingly pro-government. During the last few years, three journalists were killed and several prosecuted in trials described as unfair by international human rights organizations. Elmar Huseynov, editor-in-chief of the opposition weekly Monitor, was shot dead in 2005, but there has been no prosecution of his murderers. Newspaper editor Eynulla Fatullayev was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison for reporting on the murder of Huseynov and published other views to which the Azerbaijani government objected. The European Court of Human Rights ruled in April 2010 that Fatullayev should be released, but he remains in prison and now faces new drug charges that observers find suspicious. Human rights organizations sent a joint letter to the Council of Europe about the continued imprisonment of Eynulla Fatullayev[7] in defiance of the ruling and also sent a joint letter to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev urging Fatullayev’s release.[8]
In 2009, Bloggers Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizade were arrested under the charges of hooliganism and sentenced to two years and two and a half years in prison, respectively. They were released in November 2010.[9]
In September 2010 a group of nine freedom of expression organizations conducted a mission to Azerbaijan to assess the state of media freedom in the lead up to the elections. In the mission's final report Freedom of Expression Under Attack: Azerbaijan’s Deteriorating Media Environment[10]
Reporters Without Borders has called on the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to firmly condemn Azerbaijan for tolerating escalating press freedom violations.[11] Nearly 100 journalists were victims of physical assault in 2003. More than 50 were attacked covering violent clashes between the security forces and demonstrators after the 2003 presidential elections. Two opposition journalists were attacked in July 2004. Aydin Gouliev, editor of the opposition daily Baki Khaber, was abducted and beaten by men that accused him of "not serving his country and Islam" and warned him to stop all journalistic work on July 17, 2004.[11] Eynulla Fatullayev, editor-in-chief of Gundelik Azerbaijan and Realniy Azerbaijan newspapers, was beaten on the head in a Baku street on July 26, 2004. He has written many articles highly critical of the government and was accused by the Azerbaijani government of claiming that the Khojaly massacre was committed by Azerbaijanis and not Armenians, while Fatullayev himself denies that he made such claims.[12]
Using the metro might be very dangerous for opposition journalists. Security forces in civilian clothes follow them and try to push them in front of entering metro trains. The video footage of the security cameras is never made available for court in such cases. Latest attempt was against Seymur Haziyev on October 25 according to IRFS.
A number of foreign journalists have also been refused entry to Azerbaijan or have been expelled from the country for reporting unfavorably on domestic and foreign matters. Journalists who have visited the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) or written articles which the Azerbaijani government has perceived as portraying the NKR in a positive light or Azerbaijan in a negative one have been banned from entering Azerbaijan.[13] In June 2011, Diana Markosian, a freelance photographer for Bloomberg Markets magazine who holds dual US-Russian citizenship, was denied entry by Azerbaijani border officials at Heydar Aliyev International Airport in Baku on account of the fact that she was Armenian.[14] In the same month, a journalist for the New York Times was told that he would not be issued a visa until he could explain why there was so much “negative information” about Azerbaijan in the United States.[15] In April 2011, a Swedish TV news crew was arrested and sent back to the airport after covering a demonstration by opposition protesters.[13]
The Constitution provides that persons of all faiths may choose and practice their religion without restriction; however, there are some abuses and restrictions. Some religious groups report delays in and denials of registration. There continue to be some limitations upon the ability of groups to import religious literature. Most religious groups meet without government interference; however, local authorities monitor religious services, and officials at times harass and detain members of "nontraditional" religious groups. There are some reports of societal abuses or discrimination based on religious belief or practice. There is popular prejudice against Muslims who convert to other faiths and hostility toward groups that proselytize, particularly evangelical Christian and other missionary groups.
On 12 May 2011, the European Parliament passed a resolution condemning Azerbaijani "human rights violations" and "oppression of opposition forces".[16] The resolution mentioned concern for Eynulla Fatullayev, Jabbar Savalan, and other prisoners by name, as well as general concern for the "increasing number of incidents of harassment, attacks and violence against civil society and social network activists and journalists in Azerbaijan".[16]
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