Observatory for Protection of Human Rights Defenders worries about human rights in Southern and Northern Caucasus

The Observatory for Protection of Human Rights Defenders has released its Annual Report for 2010 "Adamant in Protest". The report, partially translated into Russian, covers the struggle for human rights around the world throughout the year. Its essential part is on the former Soviet Union countries, including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Russia.

Human rights activists note that in 2010 the absence of political pluralism in most countries of the region (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Russian Federation, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) continued promoting more and more authoritarian regimes, under which any form of dissent was viewed as a mine under political stability of the state.

The report states that in Southern Caucasus the civil society had to act in a generally hostile atmosphere and stresses that in Georgia the pressure on some human rights activists had intensified, while in Azerbaijan, and to a lesser extent in Armenia human rights activists were still under strong pressure. In all these countries justice is usually controlled by the executive power, and the issue of media independence is still topical, says the document, which abounds in concrete examples in confirmation of the stated conclusions.

The Observatory draws attention to continued violence, shadowing and intimidation of human rights defenders in the region. Labelling rights defenders as "nation's enemies" (like in Georgia), "terrorists" (like in Russia) or presenting them as the people, motivated solely by foreign funds, these campaigns were part of the global strategy aimed at weakening the defenders, and partly to encourage violence against them, says the Observatory.

The organization draws attention to Northern Caucasus, where, according to its data, human rights defenders, who exposed massive human rights violations, were subject to severe repression. The document also notes that in some countries, for example, in Azerbaijan, human rights activists sentenced to long prison terms based on fabricated evidences and through unfair trials; in this country a defender of the rights of national minorities died in custody as a result of a failure to render medical aid.