Bonde: Azerbaijani Human Rights House was deprived registration for political reasons

The reasons for cancellation by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) of Azerbaijan of registration of the Azerbaijani Human Rights House are sooner political than technical, believes Ane Tusvik Bonde, the regional manager for Eastern Europe and the Caucasus of the Norwegian Foundation "Human Rights House".

The "Caucasian Knot" has already reported that the MoJ of Azerbaijan had recalled the registration of the Azerbaijani Human Rights House, which was a representative office of the Norwegian Foundation "Human Rights House".

"We were told that we had failed to submit enough information to the MoJ, and that we had not informed about the new management, which had changed after registration," Ms Bonde told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent and noted that the MoJ had notified the organization about possible cancellation of registration without any prior notice.

"The Ministry did not cancel the registration, but forbade any activities until the House signs an agreement with the state. The new version of the law on NGOs dated June 2009 contains a vague provision for foreign NGOs that they must act in accordance with an agreement with the state. It is still unclear what sort of agreement will meet this provision, and whether it refers to already registered organizations. Along with other laws, this provision has never been clearly elucidated," Ane Tusvik Bonde explained.

(She made these additions to the "Caucasian Knot" on March 11, already after the release of this article, in order to clarify the publication. Then, she also added: "The Azerbaijani Human Rights House received a letter running that the activities of the House (representative office of the International House) should be stopped, because, under additions to the 2009 law on NGOs, it cannot work without an agreement with the state. The additions to the law were adopted in June 2009, while the House was registered in June 2007; so, the additions should not apply to the House.")

Ane Tusvik Bonde also said that on February 11 the office of the House was visited by law enforcement officials. "They made an inspection and asked us to inform them about all the activities of the House, which, of course, caused our indignation," she explained.

The Norwegian Foundation "Human Rights House" believes that the real reason for the ban imposed on its Azerbaijani representative office to work in the country is political. "Because of the action, which is planned in Baku tomorrow, on March 11, the authorities close the places, where people can gather and talk about human rights violations. They fear that in these places, people, by reacting to certain actions, can get mobilized," Ms Bonde explained.

The representative of the Norwegian "Human Rights House" has noted that Baku "has very few places, where activists of various organizations could come and discuss the issues of protection and human rights violations, while the office of the Azerbaijani Human Rights House was one of them."

Besides, according to Ms Bonde, the House could invite to the country members of other international organizations not registered in Azerbaijan, such as the Amnesty International. "In 2009, Azerbaijan adopted a new law on NGOs, under which in order to register a representative office in the country, an international organization shall conclude a special agreement with Azerbaijan; however, nobody knows so far, what kind of agreement it should be," she said.

"We got registered earlier, in 2007, as a subdivision of the "Human Rights House" Foundation; and after October 2010, when the rules of entering the country were changed, and representatives of international organizations faced difficulties in getting into the country without an invitation from a registered organization, we were able to invite them," said Ane Tusvik Bonde. Thus, according to her story, now a member of the Amnesty International is in Azerbaijan at invitation of the House.

According to Ms Bonde's data, the Azerbaijani authorities plan to cancel registration not only of the Azerbaijani Human Rights House, but also another foreign organization operating in the country - the American National Democratic Institute for International Affairs - NDIIA or NDI.

An employee of the Norwegian Embassy in Baku said that he learned about the cancellation of the registration of the Azerbaijani Human Rights House from Ms Bonde's SMS-message. "I hope that tomorrow the Embassy will find out the details of this case and express its attitude," said the employee of the Embassy of Norway.

According to Emin Guseinov, a rights defender and director of the Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS), the argument that the Azerbaijani Human Rights House had failed to apply for registration extension is groundless.

"The legislation contains no requirement of this sort. It's a political decision. The Azerbaijani Human Rights House was one of the few platforms, where civil society activists could discuss human rights issues and hold actions in support of particular individuals," said Mr Guseinov.

So far, the "Caucasian Knot" has no comments of Shakhla Ismailova, the former director of the Azerbaijani Human Rights House, to whose home address it was registered, while the current director of the House Vugar Godzhaev is away on business in the USA.