Leila Yunus: no changes for the better with human rights in Azerbaijan

Baku has hosted the Second Forum "On Situation with Democratic Freedoms and Human Rights in Azerbaijan". It was initiated by the Institute for Peace and Democracy (IPD) of Azerbaijan and dated to the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Human rights activists assert that violations of human rights in the country are still of mass character.

The Forum was attended by leaders of political parties, MPs, human rights activists, ambassadors of the EU countries, and employees of the Baku-based offices of the OSCE, Council of Europe (CE) and EU.

Leila Yunus, Director of the IPD, has reported that with the help of the German embassy a project was implemented, which assumed monitoring during 6 months of Azerbaijani judicial bodies.

Legal experts have analysed 21 court judgements. Only in five cases, in their opinion, judges had passed justified lawful decisions.

Thus, out of seven cases dealing with claims against newspapers, only one decision was passed in favour of the mass media.

Lawyer Yusif Agaev has explained the situation by lack of independence in judges. As he said, the courts "are unconditionally approving the indictments lodged by investigatory bodies."

Mekhman Aliev, Director of the "Turan" Agency, has stated that all the seven national TV Channels in Azerbaijan are controlled by the state and unable to broadcast any objective and balanced information.

Same with the press, where out of 150 published newspapers, only five-six are outside the state control.

Ali Kerimli, leader of the Party of the People's Front of Azerbaijan (PPFA), has criticized the international organizations for their passiveness in influencing the authorities of Azerbaijan in the context of disregard of fundamental human rights.