Report Examines Two Years of Repression in Azerbaijan

With just two days remaining until Azerbaijan’s parliamentary elections, the Sport for Rights campaign of which Civil Rights Defenders is a member, has launched a new report examining the unprecedented human rights crackdown taking place in the country.

Since the inaugural 2015 European Games held in Baku the authorities have clamped down on civil society organisations and human rights defenders with an iron fist silencing all remaining critical voices in the country.

Dozens of political prisoners, including eight journalists, five bloggers, six human rights defenders, three activists of the NIDA civic movement, an opposition activist, and an opposition leader whose release has been ordered by the European Court of Human Rights all remain incarcerated.

“The parliamentary elections are nothing more than a smokescreen to reinforce the cycle of oppression of Azerbaijan’s totalitarian regime. The authorities are ruthlessly working overtime to silence the last critical voices in the country. They have already succeeded in paralysing civil society so these elections will serve no purpose whatsoever. Human rights will continue remain an alien concept for the Aliyev regime,” said Robert Hårdh, Executive Director, Civil Rights Defenders.

Read the press release in full: Report Examining Two Years of Repression in Azerbaijan.

Download the report: No holds barred: Azerbaijan’s human rights crackdown in Aliyev’s third term.