The Council of Europe (COE) is withdrawing from the joint working group on human rights issues in Azerbaijan, COE Secretary-General Thorbjørn Jagland
told
the Committee of Ministers today.
Since October 2014, a COE representative had been attending meetings in Baku intended to revive the dialogue between civil society and Azerbaijani authorities.
“Despite this initiative, the overall situation of human rights defenders in the country has deteriorated dramatically. An increasing number of human right defenders has recently been imprisoned, and the Council of Europe has received worrying reports about unacceptable detention conditions,” the COE press release read.
Prior to his intervention at the Committee of Ministers, the Secretary General had informed Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev of his decision.
The human rights task force comprises government officials, members of parliament and human rights activists.
The move comes amid mounting criticism of Azerbaijan’s human rights records and increasing crackdown on rights activists and reporters ahead of the November 1 parliamentary elections.
