The FIDH is preoccupied by the blatant restrictions of fundamental freedoms and by the concentration of power in the hand of the President. The same statement was made by the Council of Europe Monitoring Group, which put forward a "standstill and lack of progress on a number of sensitive issues", and a "slower rate of democratic progress" in its third Progress Report of 3 September.
Obstacles to the free conducting of presidential election
The new President of Azerbaijan will be elected on 15 October 2003. This major event could be an important stage for the country’s transition to the rule of law. However, recent events show that the authorities are not ready for this transition and want to retain their grip on Azerbaijan.
Political unrest has started months before the official election campaign began on 16 August.
On 23 June, the New Azerbaijan Party (YAP), the majority party elected current President Heydar Aliev as its candidate for the presidential ballot. He is thus running for a third term.
On 4 July, the Central Election Commission (CEC) registered Ilham Aliev, the President’s son, as presidential candidate. His name was put forward by an independent group of voters, not belonging to any official political party. Ilham Aliev declared that he is running simply to support his father, and to participate more actively in his campaign. This appointment is very significant considering the fact that Heydar Aliev’s health is deteriorating.
In addition, on 4 August, President Aliev appointed his son as Prime Minister. According to constitutional amendments passed in August 2002, the Prime Minister becomes President if the latter is incapacitated or resigns. This manoeuvre demonstrates Aliev’s will to retain his power by all means. It is worth noting that article 69.2 of the Electoral Code prohibits a serving Prime Minister from running the presidential elections.
On 9 August 2003, 20 000 people demonstrated in Baku against Ilham Aliev’s appointment. On 11 August, the Azerbaijan Home Office and the Office of the Prosecutor General issued a joint statement in which they warned that they will curtail any "negative developments that threaten the interests of the State". Protests however continued, and the following day, the police force attacked demonstrators with rubber truncheons. Ilham Aliev subsequently stepped down in order to run the elections.
Harassment and repression of members of opposition political parties and opposition candidates is another way of diverting the election process.
In May 2003, the head of the Central Election Commission declared during an interview on television that he would reject the application of the Azerbaijan Democratic Party (ADP) candidate, Rasul Guliev, a former speaker of the Parliament now in exile. This declaration was made even before Rasul Guliev’s application was officially submitted to the CEC.
In response, the ADP held meetings and pickets to demand that Rasul Guliev’s rights be respected and that the elections be free and democratic. The meetings were all violently repressed by the police forces, even though they were organised in respect of the Law about free gathering. This law requests that the local authorities be informed of the gathering in advance. On 25 May 2003, 14 members of the ADP were arrested and sentenced to up to 15 days imprisonment following a gathering. Fifteen members were fined. Moreover, according to the Health Commission of the Azerbaijan Democratic Party, 54 people were wounded. On 18 June, the executive authorities of Baku prohibited another meeting. The meeting was held in front of the CEC despite of the prohibition. Thirty-four protesters were severely beaten up, and 25 ADP members were arrested. Similar events took place on 21 and 28 June. According to the Human Rights Centre of Azerbaijan (HRCA), hospitals received orders not to provide medical assistance to the people injured during the protests.
On 13 June, the head of the ADP in Agsu was arrested while collecting signatures, which are necessary for the application to the CEC. The petition was confiscated by the police.
On 2 July, the CEC officially rejected Rasul Guliev’s application. The CEC alleged that the application did not comply with article 100 of the Constitution, which lists the requirements to be met by a candidate. In particular, the CEC recalled that Mr Guliev had been living in the United States for seven years, and that he thus did not comply with the requirement demanding that every candidate be a permanent resident in Azerbaijan for at least ten years. The CEC agreed that the fact that Mr Guliev was in exile for political reasons and had not been engaged in any political activities in his host country could have constituted an exception. It however held that no sufficient evidence had been given concerning that matter. The CEC also argued that Mr Guliev’s application did not comply with article 54.8 of the Electoral Code, which deals with the compulsory documents to be submitted. Documents issued abroad are accepted in Azerbaijan only after authentication by the Consular department, and legalisation by the authorities of Azerbaijan. Although the said documents were authenticated by the US Department of State on 16 July 2003, the Azeri executive authorities considered that they did not comply with the requirements of article 54.8.
On 30 August 2003, Mirvary Gahramanli, member of the political council of the ADP and of the Azerbaijan Federation of Human Rights, was beaten up by the police during a meeting of the ADP. She had to be taken to the hospital where she was diagnosed with skull and brain contusions.
The FIDH deplores the rejection of Rasul Guliev’s application, and considers that this decision is based on political considerations. Indeed, Rasul Guliev is a major opposition figure.
The election campaign is also characterised by the increasing pressure exercised on independent and opposition newspapers and journalists.
For instance, in the past few months, the newspaper Yeni Mussavat has been sentenced to three fines amounting to 100,000 US$.
On 26 July 2003, Justice Minister Fikret Mamadov accused the media of trying to destabilise the country during the election process, and said he would crack down on media undermining the "honour and dignity" of the President. On the same day, several opposition journalists were arbitrarily arrested for having violated traffic legislation as they were heading to a press club.
On 8 September, journalists were attacked by the police outside Baku police station. The journalists were waiting for an official police statement concerning the summoning of the representative of a political party, who fought with another politician during a TV show. Some were reportedly taken inside the station to be beaten up.
The OSCE media watchdog and the Council of Europe voiced their concern that harassment of media "may discourage critical reporting at a time when media pluralism and the full and unhindered exercise of press freedoms will be essential in the run up to the forthcoming presidential elections".
All these events violate freedoms of the media and expression, as embodied in particular in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the Convention for the protection of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms (ECHR), as well as the right to take part in public life. In this regard, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) guarantees the right of every citizen "to vote and to be elected at genuine periodic elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret ballot, guaranteeing the free expression of the will of the electors".
In addition, the right to free and fair election has also been violated. The FIDH recalls that paragraph 7(5) of OSCE 1990 Copenhagen document states that States shall "respect the right of citizens to seek political or public office, individually or as representatives of political parties or organizations, without discrimination". According to paragraph 7(6), States shall "ensure that law and public policy work to permit political campaigning to be conducted in a fair and free atmosphere in which neither administrative action, violence nor intimidation bars the parties and the candidates from freely presenting their views and qualifications, or prevents the voters from learning and discussing them".
Repression of civil society and of Human Rights Defenders
The FIDH notes that opposition political parties and their members are not the only targets of governmental repression. The authorities also harass civil society and Human Rights Defenders, and tries to hinder their activities.
On 23 April 2003, the Amal Human Rights Protection Committee (Amal) launched a petition demanding the resignation of Heydar Aliev. 126 members of the organisation, many of them famous intellectual figures, signed the petition. All of them subsequently suffered from pressure and intimidation. The government mass media and the pro-government television channels took part in this process. On 6 May, during a session of the Milli Meljis (Parliament), the chairman of the Parliament commission, Shahlar Asgarov, publicly criticised the activities of the organisation and its members.
Many signatories of the petition were threatened of dismissal if they did not refute their signatures. Pressure was exerted on their relatives, many of which were fired from their jobs and sometimes personally threatened. For instance, the Board of Baku State University set up a special committee to audit the records of the professors who signed the appeal. Poet Musa Yagb’s son was fired from his position following his father’s signature of the petition.
In April 2003, in the framework of an urgent appeal of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a FIDH and OMCT joint program, the FIDH had expressed its concern at the attacks and threats experienced during April 2003 by Eldar Zeinalov, chairman of the HRCA, and Leyla Yunus, chairman of the Institute of Peace and Democracy. The police initiated preliminary investigation concerning the mob attacks of the HRCA office on 23 and 24 April. The FIDH is however preoccupied by the police investigator’s decision, on 13 May, not to start an official investigation. According to the investigator, the attack was carried out by a crowd of persons who cannot be identified. Moreover, no preliminary investigation was opened concerning personal threats against Eldar Zeinalov, nor concerning the attacks against Leyla Yunus and the Institute of Peace and Democracy.
The FIDH points out that those threats and pressure exercised against civil society and Human Rights Defenders constitute a restriction of the right of association, guaranteed by article 17 of the UDHR, article 22 of the ICCPR, article 11 of the ECHR, and paragraph 9(3) of the Copenhagen Document. The FIDH moreover recalls that the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders provides for a set of rights for the protection of Human Rights Defenders’ activities, to be respected and protected by States. Article 1 of this Declaration recalls that "everyone has the right, individually and in association with others, to promote and to strive for the protection and realisation of human rights and fundamental freedoms at the national and international levels". Article 12(2) states that "the State shall take all necessary measures to ensure the protection by the competent authorities of everyone, individually and in association with others, against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in the present Declaration."
Reduction of sentences connected with the Nardaran events
The FIDH welcomes the reduction of the sentences of individuals who had been imprisoned in connection with the Nardaran events. In June 2002, appalling economic and social conditions sparked major demonstrations in the town of Nardaran. The police fired the crowd, and killed one and wounded many. Waves of arrests followed these events (see FIDH report of the International Mission of Judicial Observation, "Azerbaijan: Civil Society and Justice locked by the Aliev system", November 2002). According to the Human Rights Centre of Azerbaijan, the 5 years imprisonment sentences of Veliyev Hikmet Mirzaba and Zakiyev Etibar Zaki were commuted to suspended sentences of 3 years imprisonment. The sentence of Alikram Aliev, leader of the Azeri Islamic Party, was reduced from 8 to 6 years imprisonment.
However, the FIDH recalls that the trials of the Nardaran protestors were held in violation of the right to a fair trial. Their detention is thus still arbitrary, and constitutes a breach of freedoms of expression and of demonstration. In addition, to this day, the authors of the repression of the villagers have not been prosecuted.
Trials of Political prisoners
The FIDH takes note of the presidential decree of 17 June, pardoning and releasing 97 inmates, and reducing the sentences of 9 of them. According to the information received from the Press Service of the President, 38 of the inmates concerned by the decree had been convicted for crimes against the independence and the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.
It is extremely difficult to know how many political prisoners are still held, as the government refuses to acknowledge their existence, and access to information is difficult. According to sources, there are between 300 and 700 political prisoners in the country. According to a Council of Europe report, published in January 2002, "at the end of December 2001, there must be at least 500 political prisoners still in detention". Even though the authorities pronounce pardon decrees from time to time, they still refuse to grant a general amnesty (see FIDH report of the International Mission of Judicial Observation, "Azerbaijan: Civil Society and Justice locked by the Aliev system", November 2002).
In this respect, the FIDH would like to draw attention on the situation of three emblematic political figures. I.Gamidov, sentenced to 14 years imprisonment, R.Gaziev, and A.Gumbatov, both sentenced to life imprisonment were all convicted because of their political activities during the 1991-1995 transition period. They were recognised as "political prisoners" by resolution 1272 of the Council of Europe.
In August 2001, under the pressure of the Council of Europe, the government agreed to carry out new trials. The new legal proceedings started on 24 January 2002 for Gumbatov, 29 May 2002 for Gamidov, and 21 June 2002 for Gaziev. However, it seems that once more, the authorities lack the willingness to guarantee the right to a fair trial, as laid out by articles 11 and 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and article 6 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR). Irregularities have reportedly been occurring during sessions. For instance, Gamidov was not brought to a session of his retrial that took place on 20 June 2003. The same day, journalists’ dictaphones and cameras were confiscated.
Sessions of the retrials have been held at the 9th correctional colony, where the three men are detained, while the Appeal Court normally sits in Baku. The FIDH is concerned that Gamidov, Gumbatov and Gaziev seem to be treated as prisoners, and not as defendants who should be presumed innocents and therefore tried in a proper court instead of a prison. This constitutes a violation of Article 6(2) of the ECHR, which states: "everyone charged with a criminal offence shall be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law".
On 2 July 2003, I.Gamidov’s sentence was commuted to 11 years imprisonment. Considering he has already served 8 years, he will thus remain in prison for 3 more years. On 7 July, Gumbatov was reconvicted with life imprisonment. Gaziev’s retrial is still ongoing. The latest session of Gaziev’s trial took place on 25 August 2003, after a four months interruption. The State Prosecutor delivered the same speech he had given at the end of the original trial in 1995, but this time requested that Gaziev be sentenced to 15 years imprisonment. The next session will be held on 25 September.
The FIDH notes the reduction of Gamidov’s sentence, but is concerned that his deteriorating health may not enable him to spend 3 more years in prison. The FIDH deplores the fact that Gumbatov’s sentence remains unchanged, and is concerned that it could set the example for Gaziev’s trial.
In light of this information, the retrials may be considered as a smoke screen enabling the authorities to claim they have complied with resolution 1272 of the Council of Europe.
The FIDH recalls that at the time of its accession to the Council of Europe, Azerbaijan committed itself to "release or to grant new trials to those prisoners who are regarded as "political prisoners" by human rights protection organisations, especially Messrs. Iskander Gamidov Alikram Gumbatov and Raquim Gaziev" (opinion N°222 (2000), paragraph 14 iv b). There however still remains an important number of political prisoners which have not been released, or who have not been granted a new trial.
The FIDH insists that stability in the region depends on the introduction and respect of the rule of law.
The FIDH considers that the policy implemented by Azerbaijan contradicts Article 2 of the EU-Azerbaijan "Partnership and Co-operation Agreement", which states that "respect for democracy, principles of international law and human rights as defined in particular in the United Nations Charter, the Helsinki Final Act and the Charter of Paris for a New Europe, [...] underpin the internal and external policies of the Parties and constitute essential elements of partnership and of this Agreement.
The FIDH highlights the necessity for the European Union to be consistent with its previous commitments, as well as with the positions and recommendations of other European institutions, such as the Council of Europe and the OSCE. The FIDH moreover recalls that in June 2001,the Council’s conclusions on the European Union’s role in promoting human rights and democratisation in third countries reaffirmed the strong commitment to "mainstreaming of human rights and democratisation into EU policies and actions" and stated that "human rights and democratisation should systematically and at different levels be included in all EU political dialogues and bilateral relations with third countries". In addition, the Communication on human rights, adopted on 8 May 2001 by the European Commission states that "in all dialogues with third countries, the Commission will in the future seek to ensure that the discussion covers issues of concern relating to human rights and democracy" (...) "however a prerequisite for success is that these states are genuinely ready to co-operate. The EU should pursue this approach wherever possible, while recognising that in some cases, the third country may have no genuine commitment to pursue change through dialogue and consultation, and negative measures may therefore be more appropriate".
The FIDH therefore urges the European Union to exert political and diplomatic pressure on Azerbaijan for improving the human rights situation.