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Time in Yerevan: 11:07,   29 March 2024

Baku 2015: Amnesty warns of human rights violations with 100 days to go

Baku 2015: Amnesty warns of human rights violations with 100 days to go

YEREVAN, MARCH 4, ARMENPRESS: With 100 days to go until the inaugural European Games, a new event endorsed by the International Olympic Committee featuring 6,000 athletes, Amnesty International has warned that human rights in the host country, Azerbaijan, have reached a nadir, Armenpress reports, citing the Guardian.

In a new report released to coincide with the 100-days-to-go milestone to the event in Baku, Amnesty said that there were at least 22 prisoners of conscience awaiting trial “following trumped-up charges ranging from fraud and embezzlement to abuse of drugs and even treason”.
A Guardian investigation in December found that human rights activists and critical journalists had compiled a list of at least 98 individuals detained by the regime of the president, Ilham Aliyev, amid a worsening crackdown on freedom of expression and freedom of assembly.
The Amnesty report details the extent of the repression of journalists, activists and NGOs in the runup to the European Games, due to begin on 12 June and featuring athletes from 50 countries competing in 20 Olympic and non-Olympic sports.
“No one should be fooled by the glitz and glamour of the international show Azerbaijan is putting on to portray a squeaky-clean international reputation and attract foreign business,” said Amnesty’s director for Europe and Central Asia, John Dalhuisen. “Its authorities are among the most repressive in Europe and would certainly be on the medal-winning podium if prizes were on offer for the number of activists and rights defenders behind bars.”
The IOC’s president, Thomas Bach, has called the event the “missing fifth ring” of the Olympic movement, complementing other multi-sport events on other continents. But his Agenda 2020 proposals have also promised in future to take human rights into account when awarding Olympic events. Last week the Guardian revealed that Baku 2015 organisers planned to pay the travel and accommodation fees of all 50 competing nations, including a team of around 160 athletes from Britain.
The Amnesty report details cases including that of the detention of the 60-year-old human rights defender Leyla Yunis, director of the Institute for Peace and Democracy, who was imprisoned after calling for a boycott of the Games. Her husband, Arif, has also been detained.
Rasul Jafarov, who had planned to use the Games to draw attention to human rights abuses and campaign for democracy, and Intigam Aliyev, a prominent human rights lawyer whose health is worsening, are also among those who Amnesty International has called on the Azerbaijani authorities to release.
Khadija Ismayilova, a journalist who was a vocal critic of the Aliyev regime and was investigating claims of corruption in government contracts, was arrested days after speaking to the Guardian in December on dubious charges of inciting attempted suicide in a former colleague. She had earlier been blackmailed with private photos taken by a hidden camera in her apartment.
“These latest arrests have effectively paralyzed civil society and closed the lid on freedom of expression – marking the nadir of the country’s human rights record since independence,” said Dalhuisen. “With their eyes on Azerbaijan’s petro-dollars, the international community has been remarkably silent about the country’s repressive tactics and human rights violations. This is horribly shortsighted and a deep disservice to those currently languishing behind bars.”
Amnesty is calling on the Azerbaijani authorities immediately and unconditionally to release all prisoners of conscience and fully and impartially to investigate all allegations of ill treatment. It is also calling on the authorities “to cease from threatening and criminally charging people for exercising their freedom of expression and association”.
Baku 2015 declined to respond to the report. In December, Rahimov defended the country’s stance: “We can’t only use one model of democracy in the Middle East, in the west and in different countries. Sometimes the experts on democracy created the problems we have now in Syria, Libya and Iraq. We don’t want to be one of these countries.”
The Games are a pet project of Aliyev and the long-standing minister for youth and sport, Azad Rahimov, is chief executive of the organizing committee. The government is estimated to have spent £6.5bn on the infrastructure and venues to host the European Games, although it claims the true figure is lower.
The European Olympic Committee hopes the Baku Games will provide a template for future events and point to the fact 12 sports are using the Games as a qualifying event for Rio 2016. However, swimming will only feature as a junior event and the track and field is a third-tier competition.
The chief operating officer Simon Clegg, a former BOA chief executive who is one of many western veterans of other major sporting events hired to stage the Games, said last month there was now “universal enthusiasm” for the event.
“If there are a small number of skeptics still remaining I think they will be overcome when they see the scale of this event and what will be delivered in Baku,” he said. “The European Games has got an exciting future ahead of it.”







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