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Azerbaijan - Universal Periodic Review

UPR 30, May 15, 2018
Recommendations by Canada

Recommendations

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Thank you, Mr. President.

Canada encourages Azerbaijan to further strengthen protections for civil society, women and LGBTI people.

Canada recommends that Azerbaijan:

1. Revise legislation requiring civil society organizations to register activities to better protect the effective operation of civil society and media, consistent with international law.
2. Investigate promptly and impartially all allegations of arbitrary arrest and detention of civil society actors and develop transparent processes to ensure ready access to legal representation.
3. Provide training to law enforcement, judiciary and other stakeholders on handling cases of violence against women and ensure all cases are promptly and thoroughly investigated.
4. Ensure LGBTI people are protected against all forms of discrimination and violence people in both law and practice.

Canada remains concerned with the administrative burden on NGOs working in the country,as well as with issues relating to detention and accessing legal representation.

Background

According to UPR Info, a non-profit, non-governmental organization (NGO) that tracks the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process, in the first two cycles of the UPR, Azerbaijan received 209 recommendations, of which 188 were accepted (an acceptance rate of 90%). Canada’s previous recommendations to Azerbaijan were related to freedom of religion, protection of civil society, and freedom of the media.

Azerbaijan is a secular republic that has made modest efforts to engage with the international community on issues of human rights, including through the OSCE and the UN, and is a party to most major UN human rights treaties – with the exception of the Convention on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. The government continues to work closely with the UN International Organization for Migration on issues of internally displaced persons.

Despite this, there are a number of concerns, particularly with regard to the implementation of international commitments on human rights. While Azerbaijani law protects the free operation of the media and civil society actors, there have been problems in enforcement of Azerbaijani legal protections. These have been outlined in Freedom House’s 2018 Freedom in the World Report, which underlines that these problems have contributed to a decreasing operating space for civil society actors, lack of media pluralism, extended pre-trial detentions and arbitrary arrests by police. In this regard, the conditions of the 2017 arrest, detention and, in 2018, the sentencing of journalist Afghan Mukhtarli is of concern. Work is needed to ensure that defendants have ready access to effective legal representation.

Another challenge is the protection of the rights of women and LGBTI people. Gender equality is protected by Azerbaijani law and the constitution, but women remain under-represented in the upper levels of government and business, and violence against women persists, particularly domestic violence. Additionally, while anti-discrimination laws for LGBTI people exist, there are significant gaps in both law and practice. ILGA-Europe’s Rainbow Europe 2017 Report ranked Azerbaijan the lowest of 49 European countries for social and legal equality. In this context, the arrests of over 50 LGBTI persons in September 2017, although released in October, raise concerns.