Details added, first version posted at 16:40
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept.22
Trend:
The report of the UN Special Rapporteur Michel Forst on the situation of human rights defenders doesn’t reflect the Azerbaijani realities and is biased, said Azerbaijani president’s aide for public and political affairs Ali Hasanov Sept.22.
Azerbaijan always actively cooperates with various international and non-governmental organizations and has gained great experience in this sphere, said the top official.
“At different times, there have been different attitudes to the reports developed and issued by them on various spheres in our country, said Hasanov. “The objective reports reflecting the reality in essence, have always been discussed with those institutions and in the case of finding shortcomings, real steps were taken to eliminate them.”
But Azerbaijan has never accepted the documents consisting of subjective opinions and based on biased and unserious claims, said the top official, adding that the country continues to adhere to its position.
A report of every international organization, especially such a higher institution as the UN, should be prepared independently, it should be balanced and based on accurate and proven facts and take into account both positive and negative factors in every sphere, according Hasanov.
Unfortunately, the report of Michel Forst is not balanced, the claims, especially, the “facts” about imprisonments, media outlets and NGOs were not checked, and Azerbaijani government’s stance was not inquired about and was not taken into account, added Hasanov.
The remarks reflected in the “reports” of foreign NGOs such as Freedom House which have a negative attitude towards Azerbaijan, were just copied to this document, noted the top official.
“When talking about human rights, the special rapporteur had to take into account the violation of rights of more than one million Azerbaijani refugees and IDPs and include it in the document,” he said.
But regretfully, the refugee problem, which is an important issue for Azerbaijan, was not taken into account, added Hasanov.
“It is not accidental that during the press conference, Forst, referring to his mandate, said that he will not touch upon the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and its results. This openly shows his attitude towards Azerbaijan and his pro-Armenian position,” said the top official.
“The matter concerns not the authorities under the mandate, but the negative impact of the humanitarian situation which has emerged in Azerbaijan as a result of the occupation by Armenia. This issue should be in the spotlight of everyone engaged in legal issues, especially, the official representative fulfilling the mission of UN special rapporteur,” he noted.
“I believe that in his report on Armenia, Forst will try to almost equalize the situation in this country to that of Switzerland, Germany or France. It is doubtful that this report will cover such issues as total violation of human rights in Armenia, pressure on NGOs and other issues,” said Hasanov.
“The UN special rapporteur made a serious mistake by stating that there is no a dialogue between the government and civil society sector [in Azerbaijan]. The main reason is that Forst met only with the NGOs which he needed in Azerbaijan,” he noted. “The reports of those NGOs usually hide the information about that the government consistently arranges meetings with representatives of civil society institutions, learn their problems and take steps to resolve them.”
“As for the remarks on the amendments to the laws regulating the activities of NGOs, I should note that ensuring transparency in activities of civil society institutions should first of all be in the interest of UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders,” said Hasanov.
“When coming to the imprisonments, the remarks made by Forst suggest that he didn’t become familiar with the nature of the crimes and contents on those crimes,” said Hasanov.
"Otherwise, he wouldn't say a person was held criminally responsible for expressing an opinion online, while this person was in fact held liable for a concrete crime. This is at least a matter of professionalism. At the same time, Forst wouldn’t have blamed the government for the situation with a media outlet which suspended its activity due to financial difficulties.”
"In general, there are so many contradictions, inaccuracies, distortion of facts in that report and in this special rapporteur's logic. All this casts serious doubt on Forst's competence as an expert," according to Hasanov.
Therefore, the report of the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders Michel Forst doesn’t reflect the Azerbaijani realities, is biased and is ordered, he added.
“You know that Azerbaijan is a democratic, rule-of-law state. All the issues in the country are settled by the law, and the separation of powers provides a balance between the legislative, executive and judiciary powers,” said Hasanov.
“The freedom of speech and information, the freedom of assembly and other freedoms have been secured in Azerbaijan,” he said. “Hundreds of media outlets, non-governmental organizations, tens of political parties operate [in Azerbaijan], they are remarkable for their activeness in social and political processes, and they openly voice their positions.”
Hasanov reminded that Azerbaijan will hold a referendum for making additions and changes to the country’s Constitution on Sept. 26.
“The Constitution reforms reflect the intense novelties that have taken place in recent years in political, social, economic and legal areas [in the country],” he said.
Hasanov said this initiative is aimed at improving public administration, creating a larger base for protection of human rights and freedoms, deepening the reforms underway and providing their efficiency.
“Behavior of some foreign circles already gives ground to say that the powers, which always get active before the events important for our people and which have made our country a target, this time too are demonstrating their special attitude towards Azerbaijan,” he said.
“It is no coincidence that on Sept. 20, the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe announced its biased conclusion on the referendum,” he said. “Usually the Venice Commission doesn’t hastily prepare a conclusion on a draft law and inquires the opposite side’s position. However this time, all the procedures with regard to the referendum project have been violated and a hasty conclusion has been drawn up and disseminated on the request of the PACE president in only two weeks.”
Hasanov said that thus the Azerbaijani side was deprived of the right to voice its position.
“Right after the Venice Commission, the UN’s special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders made Azerbaijan a target by releasing a report, and perhaps in the next few days other organizations and a certain NGO network will make some statements and release reports,” added Hasanov.
“I believe all these are components of a process controlled from a single center and it is an ordered campaign aimed at affecting the political stance of the Azerbaijani government and the people’s will with regard to the referendum,” he said. “I don’t think these attempts will be fruitful.”
Hasanov also said Azerbaijan’s government acts in the interests of the people, it is responsible before the people and builds its policies upon such criteria as sustainable development, social welfare, strengthening of statehood and security, resolution of problems within national interests and other similar criteria.
“The people of Azerbaijan thoroughly support the policy pursued by President Ilham Aliyev and follow their leader,” he said. “Therefore, all the attempts meant to divert Azerbaijan from the right development path are doomed to fail.”