Joint Statement Regarding Non-Implementation of ECHR Rulings Against Azerbaijan

The Netherlands Helsinki Committee, along with 8 other civil society organizations, are concerned that Azerbaijan has failed to end politically-motivated prosecutions and imprisonment, despite European Court for Human Rights’ (ECHR) rulings that the country has violated a number of human rights enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights, for example in the cases of Ilgar Mammadov, Rasul Jafarov, Anar Mammadli, and Intigam Aliyev, among others.

The European Court has rendered ten judgments against the Government of Azerbaijan – concerning sixteen victims – regarding politically-motivated prosecutions, yet no measures to address these structural violations of human rights have been undertaken. Systemic misuse of the criminal justice system in Azerbaijan cannot be effectively addressed without changes to the laws that are used to facilitate them.

The Netherlands Helsinki Committee, Amnesty International, the Baku Human Rights Club, the Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Centre, the European Human Rights Advocacy Centre, the European Implementation Network, the Human Rights House Foundation, the International Partnership for Human Rights, and the Legal Education Society, are calling on Azerbaijan to address the lack of judicial independence and to end politically motivated prosecution and reprisals against civil society. We are also calling on the Council of Europe to be vocal in its critique of Azerbaijan’s failure to pursue any of the measures required to address the systemic causes and to continue to closely monitor the situation in Azerbaijan.

Read the Joint Statement here