Catherine Ashton and Štefan Füle call on the Azerbaijani authorities to remove obstacles to free operation of NGOs

Catherine Ashton, the EU High Commissioner for Foreign Policy, and Štefan Füle, the EU Commissioner for Enlargement, have expressed their concern about the adoption in Azerbaijan of amendments to the legislation restricting the activities of NGOs. They urged the authorities to review the amendments and remove obstacles to free activities of the civil sector. Azerbaijani NGOs and civil society activists urged the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to pay attention to the human rights situation in the country.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on December 17, 2013, the Azerbaijani Parliament passed the amendments, according to which the NGOs, unregistered by the Ministry of Justice, actually lost the opportunity to use grants. They also introduced new rules for auditing NGOs and established new types of violations, for which heavy fines are imposed.

Elman Abdullaev, the spokesman of the Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), expressed his "surprise and misunderstanding" in commenting the statement of Ms Ashton and Mr Füle. According to his version, Azerbaijan has fulfilled all its international obligations when joining the Council of Europe.

Meanwhile, more than 50 civil society activists of Azerbaijan have sent an appeal to the participants of the Vienna session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly asking them to pay attention to the human rights situation in the country.