Azerbaijani opposition: non-election of Azerbaijan to UN Human Rights Council is a result of Baku's policy

Politicians and human rights activists of Azerbaijan believe that no-election of their country to the Council of the United Nations for Human Rights is a logical consequence of the policy of the official Baku.

On May 12, the UN General Assembly held elections of 18 new members of the Human Rights Council. All of them were elected for the term of three years starting this June. There were three nominees for two places from the group of Eastern-European countries: Azerbaijan, Hungary and Russia. As a result of voting, Russia and Hungary won. 146 countries voted for Russia, 131 - for Hungary, and 81 - for Azerbaijan.

As stated to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent by Arzu Abdullaeva, leader of the Azerbaijani National Committee of the Helsinki Civil Assembly, the poor support of Azerbaijan at the UN voting was the implication of the complex situation with human rights in the country. "Azerbaijan has serious restrictions of the freedom of speech, and journalists are in prisons. There is an actual ban on the freedom of assembly. A vivid example is in events on May 10, when young people were arrested even for an attempt to hold a mourning action in memory of the casualties of the massacre in the Azerbaijani State Oil Academy," said Ms Abdullaeva.

Ali Kerimli, leader of the Party of the National Front of Azerbaijan (PNFA), believes that what happened "is the fruit of official Baku's policy." "Earlier, international organizations warned about the need to remedy the situation. At the second stage, pressure by the СЕ, EU and US State Department followed. And now, particular actions followed - the country just remained unelected into the key structure of the United Nations," said the oppositionist.

Isa Gambar, leader of the "Musavat" Party, finds it quite logical that the countries disrespecting human rights should not be members of the UN Council on Human Rights.

In his turn, MP Mubariz Gurbanly, deputy executive secretary of the party in power "Eni Azerbaijan", has stated that the non-election of Azerbaijan to the UN Council on Human Rights has absolutely nothing to do with the situation with human rights in Azerbaijan. "Just, the rotation principle is at work there," said Mr Gurbanly.