Anne Brasseur, president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), made the following remarks in her opening speech at a PACE Standing Committee meeting today in Baku: 

“On Monday, I spoke with our human rights commissioner about some of main human rights challenges facing Azeraijan. I am afraid that I have to agree with him that since the publication his last report on Azerbaijan in August 2013, there has been little progress in the implementation of his recommendations.

“In certain areas, such as freedom of expression freedom of association, and freedom of assembly the situation appears to have deteriorated and this has to be addressed urgently. 

“The independence and impartiality of the judiciary is a matter of utmost importance. The Council of Europe, together with other international organizations, have expressed on numerous occasions concerns about the fairness of trials, including at the pre-trial stage. 

“Furthermore, opposition figures, journalists who present dissenting opinion, bloggers and civil society activists are all too often according to many credible sources, subjected to intimidation and repression. 

“This is a more than worrying state of affairs for a member state taking up the chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers. “

Brasseur cited a decision by the European Court of Human Rights that Republican Alternative (Real) leader Ilgar Mammadov has been arrested for silence and punish him for his criticism of the government.

"I hope he will be released from detention," she said.

“Problems do not go away by ignoring them. That’s why we have to speak out.”

Elmar Mammadyarov, foreign minister of Azerbaijan, said democratization and protection of human rights is a process.

“We are in that process,” he said.  

Bakudaily.az