Khadija Ismayilova v Azerbaijan (Application No 65286/13), Khadija Ismayilova v Azerbaijan no2 (Application No 30778/15) and Khadija Ismayilova v Azerbaijan no 3 (Application No 35283/14)
Briefed on: 30 May 2022
The cases concern violations of the applicant’s right to privacy and freedom of expression in connection with her work as a journalist.
Powerpoint presentation by Khadija Ismayilova
Read MoreRamazanova and others v Azerbaijan (Application No 44362/03)
Briefed on 3rd March 2022
Powerpoint by HRHF and EMDS
The case concerns the violations of the right to freedom of association on account of the failure of the authorities to apply properly the national legislation regulating the registration / the dissolution of the associations. The case was briefed by Nora Wehofsits, International Advocacy Officer, Human Rights House Foundation (HRHF), and Anar Mammadli, Co-Founder and Senior Advisor, Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Center (EMDS).
Read MoreMammadli v. Azerbaijan (Application No 47145/14)
Briefed on 20 May 2019
This case, as well as the Namat Aliyev case, concerns various violations of the right to free elections (Article 3 of Protocol No. 1) of the applicants (members of the opposition parties or independent candidates) in the context of the parliamentary elections of 2005 and 2010.
Tural Aghayev, lawyer at the Monitoring and Democracy Studies Centre from Azerbaijan, briefed about this case.
Aliyev v Azerbaijan (Application No 68762/14), part of the Ilgar Mammadov group of cases
Briefed on 20 May 2019 and 22 November 2019
Intigam Aliyev was prosecuted for ‘illegal entrepreneurship’, ‘large-scale tax evasion’ and ‘aggravated abuse of power’ in August 2014. He was convicted and sentenced to 7 ½ years’ imprisonment in April 2015. The European Court found violations of Arts 3, 5(1), 5(4), 8, 18 in conjunction with Arts 5 & 8.
Prof. Philip Leach, from the European Human Rights Advocacy Centre, presented his recommendations regarding individual and general measures needed to implement the judgment. He set out the judgment of the Court under Article 46, including the explicit requirement that measures should be taken to restore Mr Aliyev’s ability to carry out his professional activities.
Documents from the November 2019 briefing
Rule 9.1 submission by the applicant, November 2019 (Intigam Aliyev)
Brief and Power Point by Ramute Remezaite
Rasul Jafarov v Azerbaijan, as part of the Ilgar Mammadov group (Appl. No. 69981/14)
Briefed on: 20 February and 5 September 2017 , 20 May 2019 and 22 November 2019
The case concerns an arrest and pre-trial detention of Azerbaijani human rights defender Rasul Jafarov, which the Court found unlawful and aimed to silence and punish the applicant for his human rights activities, in violation of Articles 5 and 18 of the Convention.
In April 2020 Mr Jafarov was issued with a full acquittal by the Azerbaijan Supreme Court, with an award of compensation. This removed the bar on him working as a lawyer and restored his right to run in elections. The supervision of his case was closed on 01/09/2020.
Documents from the November 2019 briefing:
Rule 9.1 submission by the applicant, September 2019 (Rasul Jafarov)
Brief by Ramute Remezaite, EHRAC, and power point
Ilgar Mammadov v. Azerbaijan (App.15172/13)
Briefed on: 12 September 2016
The case concerns the arrest and detention of the applicant, an opposition politician, in violation of Articles 5, 6 and 18 of the Convention. The ECtHR concluded inter alia that the applicant was arrested for reasons other than those permitted by Article 5, namely to silence or punish the applicant for having criticized the Azerbaijani government. Mr Mammadov won a series of cases at the European Court of Human Rights and was released in August 2018. In April 2020 Mr Mammadov was issued with a full acquittal by the Azerbaijan Supreme Court, with an award of compensation. This restored his right to run in elections. The supervision of his case was closed on 01/09/2020. As of April 2020, other Azerbaijani victims of political persuction identified by the European Court of Human Rights still wait for justice (including Anar Mammaldi and Intigam Aliyev).
Case briefing note (includes material on other cases)
Judgment of the European Court of Human Rights
Namat Aliyev group (App. 18705/06) v. Azerbaijan
Briefed on: 11 September 2015, 12 September 2016 and 20 May 2019
These cases concern parliamentary elections that occurred in Azerbaijan in November 2005; applicants were members of the opposition parties or independent candidates. The ECtHR found violations of Article 3, Protocol No. 1 due to actions by the electoral commissions and domestic courts deemed arbitrary and without motivation, including rejecting complaints alleging breaches of electoral law and cancelling candidate registration. The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Azerbaijan annulled the elections in the electoral constituencies of certain applicants without sufficient reason, and without affording procedural safeguards to the parties (including the inability to participate in a review hearing).
Documents from the 2019 briefing:
Read MoreSargsyan v Azerbaijan and Chiragov v Armenia
Briefed on: 24 May 2016
Two Grand Chamber judgments delivered on 16 June 2015 upheld the European Convention rights of families displaced by the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in the early 1990s, a conflict that created hundreds of thousands of refugees and internally-displaced persons (IDPs) on both sides, and which has remained unresolved in the ensuing decades. Peace negotiations have been held under the auspices of the OSCE ‘Minsk Group’ (co-chaired by France, Russia and the United States), but as the judgments make clear, settlement negotiations have repeatedly failed.
Mahmudov and Agazade Group v. Azerbaijan (App no 35877/04), Fatullayev v. Azerbaijan (App no 40984/07)
Briefed on: 11 September 2015
Case summary: Applicants were prosecuted for the publication of a print article in 2003 and objected to their imprisonment for defamation of a politician and agriculture expert; the Court found violations of Articles 10.
European Implementation Network
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