By Orkhan Sattarov
‘The amnesty of 62 convicts is an important step towards improving the situation with human rights and freedoms in Azerbaijan’, said Katrin Werner, BRD MP, member of European Parliament Commission for human rights, commenting on a recent amnesty decree issued by the Azeri president.
As she said, ‘among those freed under this amnesty there were 2 persons whom the international human rights organization Amnesty International had previously classified as political prisoners. Their release is a very gratifying fact that we only welcome. Our Federal government has to commence a dialog on human rights with Azerbaijani government right away and we should further the release of the remaining political prisoners – there are a dozen of them.
However, BRD governments lack political trust for that. We need to put an end to the policy of double standards. Those who remain silent about human rights violations in their own country – mass minors’ poverty, the absence of voting right for 7 million people who are not granted citizenship as well as the derogation of Nazi terror against immigrants – have no right to judge other countries.
Progress as well as problems should be openly discussed in the frames of equal partnership. There is no doubt that the situation with economic, social and cultural rights of an individual has improved in Azerbaijan. The indicators of poverty and unemployment decreased considerably. In the same time there is a need to better the situation with political and civic rights. There is a restriction of the freedom of gatherings and speech, and they should be eliminated, while the election procedure should ameliorated to meet the international standards’
