Azernews.Az

Ethnic Armenian separatists, with Armenia's support, continued to control most of the Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh region of Azerbaijan and seven surrounding Azerbaijani territories in 2007, the US State Department said.
It is indicative that the expression was used in the report’s sections on both Azerbaijan and Armenia. Nonetheless, Armenia was not cited as an aggressor country in the report.
According to the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor on Tuesday, the Azerbaijani government did not exercise any control over developments in these territories. Civilian authorities generally maintained effective control of the security forces. Members of the security forces committed numerous human rights abuses, the State Department said.
It said the Azerbaijani government took substantial steps in countering human trafficking and illegal commodities turnover throughout the year.
The State Department claimed that the government's human rights record remained poor in 2007. The public's right to peacefully change the national legislature was restricted in the 2005 parliamentary elections, although there were some improvements in the period leading up to the elections and in the May 2006 parliamentary election reruns that took place in 10 parliamentary constituencies. Police acted with impunity and courts were under the clout of executive authorities. Torture and beating of persons in police and military custody resulted in four deaths. Arbitrary arrest and detention, particularly of individuals considered by the government to be political opponents, continued. The government continued to imprison persons for politically motivated reasons. Pervasive corruption in the judiciary and in law enforcement continued. Restrictions on freedom of assembly continued, the report claimed.
The US government indicated that although national laws provide for press freedom, media outlets’ independent activity is often restricted. It noted that eight journalists were arrested last year. Although five of them were among those pardoned by a recent presidential decree, the remaining three are still in detention.
The report quoted local NGOs as saying that there were up to 60 "political prisoners" in the country. It said that despite infrastructure improvements, the conditions in prisons remained life threatening. An excessive number of inmates are kept in cells and medical services there leave a lot to be desired.
As for human rights protection worldwide, a number of countries failed to improve their record and in some states the situation worsened last year. The State Department said Russia was one of the countries that violated human rights the most in 2007. It accused the country’s security forces of committing killings and torture.
The report was made public by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the acting Assistant Secretary of State Jonathan Farrar.
The document is regularly submitted to Congress and used as reference for setting Washington’s foreign policy.*