CE quits Azerbaijan Human Rights Working Group

Today, the Council of Europe (CE) has made the decision to quit the Joint Working Group on Human Rights in Azerbaijan. This step is explained by the lack of progress in addressing the human rights problems and the deterioration of the situation in this sphere in the country.

The Council of Europe's decision was reported in the statement made by Daniel Holtgen, the press secretary of Thorbjorn Jagland, Secretary General of the Council of Europe. The statement has been available to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

"On October 7, Thorbjorn Jagland, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, informed the Committee of Ministers of his decision to stop the Council of Europe's participation in the Joint Working Group on Human Rights in Azerbaijan. Since October 2014, the representative of the Council of Europe attended the meetings in Baku, aimed at restoring the dialogue between the civil society of Azerbaijan and the authorities. Despite these initiatives, the overall situation of human rights defenders in the country has deteriorated dramatically. The number of arrested human rights defenders increases, and the Council of Europe has received worrying reports about unacceptable detention conditions," the statement reports.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.