Recommendation 2170 (2020)

Reported cases of political prisoners in Azerbaijan

Author(s): Parliamentary Assembly

Origin - Assembly debate on 30 January 2020 (7th Sitting) (see Doc. 15020, report of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, rapporteur: Ms Thorhildur Sunna Ævarsdóttir). Text adopted by the Assembly on 30 January 2020 (7th Sitting).

1. Referring to its Resolution 2322 (2020) on reported cases of political prisoners in Azerbaijan, the Parliamentary Assembly:

1.1. recalls the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights against Azerbaijan in which it found violations of Article 18 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ETS No. 5, the Convention);

1.2. welcomes the Committee of Ministers’ decision to supervise implementation of these judgments, as well as the Gafgaz Mammadov group of judgments concerning administrative detention, under its enhanced procedure; welcomes its close attention to both individual measures and the general measures required to resolve the structural and systemic problems that those judgments reveal; and

1.3. encourages the Committee of Ministers to ensure that the measures to be taken to implement the judgments in the cases under Article 18 of the Convention will allow the applicants to stand as candidates in elections, whenever they take place.