[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]”Amnesty International”s annual report on the situation around human rights in the world covers 155 countries.
The authors of the report note that authorities around the world continue to suppress freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly, use illegal force against protesters and make arbitrarily arrests and tortures among human rights defenders, political opponents and other activists.
A part of the report devoted to Azerbaijan says that most of the ethnic Armenian population was forced to leave the region as a result of the military operation in Karabakh last September.
“Amnesty International” believes that the Azerbaijani authorities are using the military victory to further strengthen their rule and increase pressure on critics.
Thus, over the past year, pressures on the media and civil society have increased, freedom of speech and the right to peaceful protests have been violated, and journalists, human rights defenders and activists have been harassed and arrested.
In this regard, the cases of Bakhtiyar Hajiyev and Gubad Ibadoglu are mentioned. In September last year, activists who criticized the military operation in Karabakh were arrested for 30 days.
Afiyaddin Mammadov, the leader of the independent trade union, was arrested on trumped-up charges punishable by up to five years in prison. In November and December, police detained 13 people on trumped-up charges. Well-known opposition politician Tofik Yagublu was arrested on charges of “forgery of documents.”
After “Abzas Media” published investigations into government corruption, the head of this media “Ulvi Hasanli” and his colleagues Sevinj Vagifgizy, Nargiz Absalamova and Muhammad Kekalov, as well as investigative journalist Hafiz Babayev, were arrested on charges of smuggling, the report says.
Besides, independent journalists were arrested: Teymur Karimov, Ibrahim Khumbatov, Arshad Ibrahimov, Aziz Orujev and Rufat Muradly, as well as activists Mohaddin Orujev and Ilhamiz Guliyev. They were charged under various articles – from illegal construction to drug possession and racketeering.
When it comes to the situation with freedom of peaceful assembly in Azerbaijan, the report notes that the authorities unfairly restrict the freedom of peaceful assembly of citizens. On June 20 last year, the police violently dispersed a peaceful environmental action by residents of the village of Seudlu against the expansion of a gold mine in the Gedabey region.
During the suppression of the peaceful protest, about ten people were injured, many protesters and journalists covering the events were detained, and access to the village was restricted.
The report also says that women in Azerbaijan continue to face various forms of violence.-[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]