21:23, 14 June 2014

Rights defenders call Barroso to address restricted freedoms in Azerbaijan

The problems of human rights violations and restrictions on democratic freedoms in Azerbaijan were discussed at today's meeting in Baku of the head of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso with civil society activists.

The activists asked the top European official to urge the Azerbaijani authorities to release political prisoners, stop the pressure on civil society institutions and remove restrictions on realization of fundamental freedoms.

The meeting, which was held in the Baku EU office, was attended by nine activists representing the local non-governmental organizations working in the sphere of human rights, economy and transparency of public resources, as well as youth and women's movements.

Leyla Yunus, the director of the Institute for Peace and Democracy (IPD) was one of the participants of the meeting. She told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that she had focused Barroso's attention "on recent strengthening by the authoritarian Azerbaijani regime of repressions against critics of the regime."

Author: Faik Medzhid

Source: CK correspondent