Activists state worsening of human rights situation in Azerbaijan

In 2021, Azerbaijan faced a broader practice of violating citizens' civil, political and socioeconomic rights under the pretext of the COVID-19 pandemic, says the report by the non-governmental Centre for Election Monitoring and Democracy Education (CEMDE).

On January 19, the CEMDE issued its 22-page report on the state of affairs in Azerbaijan with civil, political and socioeconomic rights in 2021.

Based on 580 facts, the report classifies 676 violations of citizens' rights.

Most often, the rights to social security, fair trial, the freedom of assembly and self-expression, the right to medical care and adequate living conditions were violated, the authors of the report have claimed. Out of the 676 facts of rights violations, 310 concerned civil and political rights; and 366 – the socioeconomic rights.

The COVID-19 pandemic became one of the main reasons that negatively affected the country's economic situation in 2021, Anar Mamedli, the chairman of the CEMDE, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

"The restrictions associated with the pandemic have made the already difficult population's conditions even harder. We've identified 118 cases of violations of social security rights. These were mainly citizens' complaints about bureaucratic obstacles for low-income families in receiving the due targeted social help. Citizens were often denied this help for unjustified reasons," Mr Mamedli has stated.

With regard to political and civil rights, most often citizens complained about the violation of the right to a fair trial; 87 such cases were recorded by the CEMDE.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on January 20, 2022 at 00:43 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.