Council of Europe withdraws from human rights task force, terminates cooperation with Azerbaijan on human rights issues
Worsening human rights in Azerbaijan have prompted the Council of Europe to withdraw its representative from a national authorities and civil society task force. Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagland informed the Committee of Ministers today of his decision to end the organisation’s participation in the joint working group on human rights issues in Azerbaijan. Since October 2014, a Council of Europe 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 been imprisoned and worrying reports have been received by the Council of Europe concerning “unacceptable detention conditions.”
