Azernews.Az

The Azerbaijani government has come out against the US State Department's annual report severely criticizing the country's human rights record.
"Azerbaijan does not agree with the United States' criticism," says a statement issued by the head of the President's Office socio-political department Ali Hasanov.
The State Department claimed that the government's human rights record remained poor in 2007. It said 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. Police acted with impunity and courts were under the clout of executive authorities. 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, according to the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor on March 11.
Hasanov indicated that along with citing constructive criticism, the report had failed to note the country's achievements and included data derived from sources whose impartiality was dubious, and a number of facts had been distorted.
"The Azerbaijani government has repeatedly stated its commitment to the ideals of human rights protection, has proven this commitment in practice every time and continues to do so," the statement said. "We note that some statements by government officials were misinterpreted or reflected inaccurately, and that most of the views and discontent expressed in the report stemmed from poor awareness and failure to drastically research issues in this area."
Hasanov said substantial work has been done in recent years in Azerbaijan to bolster democracy and protect human rights.
One of the reasons for Baku's discontent was the fact that the report had no reference to the blatant violation of the basic rights of a million refugees displaced as a result of the Armenian aggression, which adversely affects the overall situation with human rights.
The presidential administration official said that considering the United States' mild reaction to the developments in Armenia, the government "considered this biased and critical approach toward Azerbaijan as an indicator of double standards".
Thousands of demonstrators protested in the capital Yerevan for 10 days after the country's February 19 presidential poll that they said was rigged. The protests were marred by violent clashes that left eight people dead and 131 injured.
US ambassador to Azerbaijan Anne Derse has expressed hope that the State Department's assessment would be deemed as constructive criticism.
"We are aware that freedom, democracy and Euro-Atlantic integration are Azerbaijan's strategic choice. I hope that the State Department's assessment will be deemed as constructive criticism, as the 'friends tell the truth' saying goes," Derse said in a meeting with local rights champions.
Derse expressed disappointment that the report did not cite any tangible progress. "We witnessed outright deterioration in a number of areas."
The ambassador said the situation with media freedom was of particular concern, noting that violent crimes against journalists persisted in the country. The perpetrators of these attacks including the killers of the controversial Monitor magazine editor Elmar Huseynov remain unpunished. The number of trials on libel charges has sharply increased, Derse said.
"Although a pardon decree was issued late last year, several journalists are still jailed," she said.
Derse said the problem of ensuring freedom of assembly was another area of concern given that 2008 is an election year in Azerbaijan. She said media freedom, freedom of assembly and civil participation in the period leading up to the election will be the deciding factors for the conduct of a free and fair vote.
The US government's report also indicated that although national laws provide for press freedom, media outlets' independent activity is often restricted. 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.
In a positive development, it said the Azerbaijani government took substantial steps in countering human trafficking and illegal commodities turnover throughout the year.
With regard to the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, the State Department said 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.
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 report, 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.
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