Human Rights Watch criticized Baku

YEREVAN, MAY 7, ARMENPRESS: The Human Rights Watch said today that the Azerbaijani authorities should immediately stop its campaign of forced evictions and demolitions in the capital Baku. The government should also guarantee fair compensation to homeowners and residents, including those already evicted, as reported by Armenpress, quoting the Azerbaijani Contact.az.

The controversial Winter Garden opens the week of May 6, 2013, in central Baku, where hundreds of residents were evicted to make way for the park, shops, and a parking lot. The authorities have planned a week of celebrations and events, including a speech by President Ilham Aliyev on May 10, marking the birthday of his late father, former President Heydar Aliyev.

The evictions and demolitions began in 2009 and have displaced hundreds, if not thousands, of families. Human Rights Watch has found that some people are evicted without warning or in the middle of the night. The authorities often cut off services to houses slated for demolition, making them uninhabitable and compelling residents to leave. Then the homes are demolished, sometimes with residents’ possessions inside. The government has refused to provide homeowners with fair compensation for the properties, many of which are in highly desirable locations.

The authorities offered the people 1,500 Azeri manat (US$1,900) per square meter for their apartments, which they believed was low, particularly given the central location of their homes. Independent evaluations priced the apartments at no less than 2,500 manat (US$3,185) per square meter.

In 2013, the authorities extended the demolition area related to the Winter Garden to include many additional streets beyond the initial plans for development of the park.

In a 2012 meeting with Human Rights Watch, Azerbaijani government officials denied that the forced evictions in Baku were unlawful. A letter sent to President Ilham Aliyev in June 2011 regarding the demolitions remains unanswered. Governments have the right to expropriate private property and evict homeowners and residents in certain limited circumstances: solely to promote the general welfare and only in accordance with national law and international standards.

There is no basis for the Baku expropriations and evictions in Azerbaijani law, which guarantees the right to private property and allows the government to expropriate property only in limited cases, such as for national defense, roads, or communications infrastructure. A court order is required to expropriate property. National law requires the government to purchase at market value any properties it expropriates and pay an additional 20 percent of the market value of the home as compensation for the owner’s trouble.

The expropriation and demolition of properties in central Baku also violatesAzerbaijan’s obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights, which explicitly protects against unlawful expropriation of property. According to the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), any deprivation of property, including by expropriation, must comply with the principle of lawfulness, be in the public interest, and pursue a legitimate aim in a proportionate manner.

The ECtHR has also held that failing to pay compensation reasonably related to the value of the property is an excessive interference with an individual's rights. In addition, in many cases of expropriation, the only appropriate sum deemed to be “reasonably related to the value of the property” will in fact be full compensation – that is the market price of the property, plus costs or losses incurred as a result of the expropriation.

The ongoing expropriation and demolition of properties in central Baku violates both Azerbaijani law and Azerbaijan’s international human rights commitments, Human Rights Watch said.