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Ecri Report on Azerbaijan CRI(2016)17 ECRI REPORT ON AZERBAIJAN (fifth monitoring cycle) Adopted on 17 March 2016 Published on 7 June 2016 ECRI Secretariat Directorate General II - Democracy Council of Europe F-67075 STRASBOURG Cedex Tel.: + 33 (0) 3 90 21 46 62 E-mail: [email protected] www.coe.int/ecri ECRI REPORT ON AZERBAIJAN (fifth monitoring cycle) Adopted on 17 March 2016 Published on 7 June 2016 TABLE OF CONTENTS FOREWORD ................................................................................................................ 7 SUMMARY ................................................................................................................... 9 FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS .................................................................... 11 I. COMMON TOPICS ................................................................................. 11 1. LEGISLATION AGAINST RACISM AND RACIAL DISCRIMINATION ........................ 11 - PROTOCOL NO. 12 TO THE EUROPEAN CONVENTION ON HUMAN RIGHTS (ECHR) .................................................................................................... 11 - CRIMINAL LAW ........................................................................................... 11 - CIVIL AND ADMINISTRATIVE LAW ................................................................. 12 - SPECIALISED NATIONAL BODIES .................................................................. 14 2. HATE SPEECH ........................................................................................... 15 - EXTENT OF THE PHENOMENON ................................................................... 15 - RESPONSES TO HATE SPEECH .................................................................... 18 3. RACIST AND HOMO/TRANSPHOBIC VIOLENCE ............................................... 20 4. INTEGRATION POLICIES .............................................................................. 22 - REFUGEES AND OTHER MIGRANTS .............................................................. 23 - HISTORICAL ETHNIC, RELIGIOUS AND LINGUISTIC MINORITIES ........................ 25 II. TOPICS SPECIFIC TO AZERBAIJAN .................................................... 26 1. INTERIM FOLLOW-UP RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE FOURTH CYCLE ................ 26 2. DISCRIMINATION ON THE GROUND OF RELIGION ........................................... 28 3. POLICIES TO COMBAT DISCRIMINATION AND INTOLERANCE AGAINST LGBT PERSONS ........................................................................................ 30 - DATA ........................................................................................................ 30 - POLICIES .................................................................................................. 30 - LEGISLATION ............................................................................................. 31 INTERIM FOLLOW-UP RECOMMENDATIONS ......................................................... 33 LIST OF RECOMMENDATIONS ................................................................................ 35 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................ 37 5 FOREWORD The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), established by the Council of Europe, is an independent human rights monitoring body specialised in questions relating to racism and intolerance. It is composed of independent and impartial members appointed on the basis of their moral authority and recognised expertise in dealing with racism, xenophobia, antisemitism and intolerance. In the framework of its statutory activities, ECRI conducts country monitoring work, which analyses the situation in each of the member States regarding racism and intolerance and draws up suggestions and proposals for dealing with the problems identified. ECRI’s country monitoring deals with all member States of the Council of Europe on an equal footing. The work takes place in 5-year cycles, covering 9-10 countries per year. The reports of the first round were completed at the end of 1998, those of the second round at the end of 2002, those of the third round at the end of 2007, and those of the fourth round in the beginning of 2014. Work on the fifth round reports started in November 2012. The working methods for the preparation of the reports involve documentary analyses, a visit to the country concerned, and then a confidential dialogue with the national authorities. ECRI’s reports are not the result of inquiries or testimonial evidence. They are analyses based on a great deal of information gathered from a wide variety of sources. Documentary studies are based on a large number of national and international written sources. The in situ visit provides the opportunity to meet with the parties directly concerned (both governmental and non-governmental) with a view to gathering detailed information. The process of confidential dialogue with the national authorities allows the latter to provide, if they consider it necessary, comments on the draft report, with a view to correcting any possible factual errors which the report might contain. At the end of the dialogue, the national authorities may request, if they so wish, that their viewpoints be appended to the final ECRI report. The fifth round country-by-country reports focus on four topics common to all member States: (1) Legislative issues, (2) Hate speech, (3) Violence, (4) Integration policies and a number of topics specific to each one of them. The fourth-cycle interim recommendations not implemented or partially implemented during the fourth monitoring cycle will be followed up in this connection. In the framework of the fifth cycle, priority implementation is requested again for two specific recommendations chosen from those made in the report. A process of interim follow-up for these two recommendations will be conducted by ECRI no later than two years following the publication of this report. The following report was drawn up by ECRI under its own responsibility. It covers the situation up to 11 December 2015; developments since that date are neither covered in the following analysis nor taken into account in the conclusions and proposals therein. 7 SUMMARY Since the adoption of ECRI’s third report on Azerbaijan on 23 March 2011, progress has been made in a number of fields. People in Azerbaijan have a general attitude of openness with regard to many of the minorities historically present in the country. There is a number of administrative and civil law provisions prohibiting discrimination. Moreover, the Supreme Court has emphasised the need to apply international conventions, some of which provide for protection against racism. There is no information about hate-speech incidents in connection with many historical minorities. Azerbaijan has repeatedly hosted international forums on intercultural dialogue; in 2014 it set up the Baku International Multiculturalism Centre. The Ombudsperson has organised awareness-raising campaigns to promote tolerance. No violent hate crime based on ethnic affiliation has been registered in Azerbaijan during the last five years. Azerbaijan has implemented ECRI’s recommendation to adopt a Migration Code. Its Article 77 on the “adaptation” of foreigners could lay the ground for integration policies for migrants; these could include language and integration courses. The authorities have also undertaken efforts to improve historical minorities’ access to public services and labour market by decentralisation and the construction of infrastructure such as schools and roads to remote villages. Some civil-society organisations that promote the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) persons have been founded and the police protected LGBT people during the 2012 Eurovision Contest in Baku. ECRI welcomes these positive developments in Azerbaijan. However, despite the progress achieved, some issues give rise to concern. No reliable statistical data is available to evaluate the situation in the country in many fields of relevance for ECRI’s work. In addition, civil society and independent media have been severely hit by a wide-ranging crackdown, and the OSCE was ordered to close down its local office. The grounds of colour, language, citizenship and ethnic origin are not explicitly mentioned in several criminal-law provisions that concern racism. Incitement to violence and support for groups promoting racism is not punishable. Neither civil nor administrative law contains a definition of direct and indirect racial discrimination and Azerbaijan has not enacted comprehensive legislation in these fields. Furthermore, the Ombudsperson’s mandate is limited to the public sector and there is still no institution responsible for combating racism and discrimination in the private sector. Political leaders, educational institutions and media have continued using hate speech against Armenians; an entire generation of Azerbaijanis has now grown up listening to this hateful rhetoric. Human rights activists working inter alia towards reconciliation with Armenia have been sentenced to heavy prison terms on controversial accusations and there are big concerns that hate speech provisions have been misused against the Talysh minority. Hate speech is also targeted at LGBT persons. The on-going wave of hate speech could lead to racist and homo/transphobic violence. In addition, in 2012 the authorities pardoned, released and promoted Ramil Safarov, who had been sentenced in Budapest to life imprisonment for the murder
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