Rédaction Azerbaijan’s Human Rights Commissioner (Ombudsperson), Sabina Aliyeva, has criticized Human Rights Watch (HRW) for what she calls a “biased and one-sided” portrayal of the country in its 2024 World Report.
[publié par Ulviyya Karimova, le 17/02/2025]
Azerbaijan’s Human Rights Commissioner (Ombudsperson), Sabina Aliyeva, has criticized Human Rights Watch (HRW) for what she calls a “biased and one-sided” portrayal of the country in its 2024 World Report. In an open letter to HRW’s Executive Director Tirana Hassan, Aliyeva asserted that the organization had ignored publicly available reports from the Ombudsperson’s office and instead relied on “questionable and biased sources.”
The letter emphasized that Azerbaijan’s National Preventive Group had investigated allegations of torture and ill-treatment and found no evidence to support HRW’s claims. Aliyeva also accused HRW of failing to acknowledge Azerbaijan’s role in hosting COP29, a major climate conference, and its efforts to address environmental issues. She called on HRW to ensure its reports were impartial and based on verified facts.
However, Aliyeva’s defense of Azerbaijan’s human rights record comes amid an escalating crackdown on journalists, human rights defenders, and activists. Reports from multiple international organizations, including Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), paint a starkly different picture of the situation in Azerbaijan, where independent media face severe repression.
If the Azerbaijani Ombudsperson considers the HRW report biased, what does S. Aliyeva call the arrest of animal rights defender Kamran Mammadli after his protest at the COP29 event? What does the Ombudsman call the arrest of Meydan TV journalists Aytac Tapdig and Khayala Aghayeva, who filmed Kamran Mammadli’s protest, and their detention on false charges after the COP 29 event?
A wave of arrests before and after the presidential elections
On February 7, 2024, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev called for early presidential elections. Even before the announcement, authorities had launched a series of arrests targeting journalists and opposition figures.
One of the most high-profile cases was the arrest of economist and opposition politician Gubad Ibadoglu in July 2023. He was sentenced to nearly four months of pretrial detention, with his wife alleging that he was forcibly removed from his car and physically assaulted. His arrest was linked to accusations of ties to the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), an allegation he denies. The U.S. Embassy in Azerbaijan condemned the arrest.
Journalists have also been frequent targets. In November 2023, AbzasMedia director Ulvi Hasanli was detained, and the media outlet’s office was raided. Police claimed to have found 40,000 euros in cash, an allegation AbzasMedia called a fabrication to justify the charges against Hasanli. Within days, the outlet’s editor-in-chief Sevinj Vagifqizi and other journalists, including Nargiz Absalamova and Elnara Gasimova, were also arrested.
In March 2024, shortly after the presidential elections, authorities raided the office of Toplum TV, leading to multiple arrests, including that of the outlet’s founder, Alasgar Mammadli. Several journalists were charged with currency smuggling, with two released under travel bans. One of them, Farid Ismayilov, was rearrested after the COP29 conference and sentenced to nearly three months of pretrial detention, despite suffering from serious health issues, including multiple surgeries.
Crackdown on Independent Media and Free Speech
Azerbaijan has continued to suppress independent journalism, with the arrests of Meydan TV journalists being the latest example. On December 6, 2024, the government detained six journalists from Meydan TV along with an independent reporter and the deputy director of the Baku Journalism School. They were charged with smuggling, a charge widely seen as politically motivated.
These arrests have drawn condemnation from Amnesty International, CPJ, RSF, and other human rights organizations. RSF noted that Azerbaijan fell 13 places in its 2023 Press Freedom Index, ranking 164th out of 180 countries due to increasing restrictions on press freedom and the imprisonment of journalists.
Azerbaijan’s Ombudsperson vs. International Watchdogs
While Sabina Aliyeva claims HRW’s report is biased, she has remained silent on the findings of other international organizations that have consistently documented government repression. The arrests of journalists, human rights defenders, and environmental activists—especially surrounding the presidential elections and the COP29 event—suggest a systematic effort to silence dissent.
The Azerbaijani government’s growing control over the media means that few independent outlets remain. Those that continue to operate do so under immense pressure, with journalists facing the constant threat of arrest and fabricated charges. In this climate, Aliyeva’s dismissal of international reports as biased raises the question: if the entire international human rights community is wrong about Azerbaijan, then who is actually being biased?
Also worth reading : Deteriorations of diplomatic relations between Bangladesh and India
