Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards

One ‘winner’ of the Baku Games is known: Front Line reports that on 13 June 2015, human rights defender Mr Emin Huseynov left Azerbaijan, ending his 10 month-long refuge in the Swiss embassy in Baku. [see: https://thoolen.wordpress.com/2015/02/12/azerbaijani-human-rights-defender-emin-huseynov-hides-in-swiss-embassy/.

The human rights defender is currently in Bern, Switzerland where he arrived from Azerbaijan on 13 June 2015. In leaving Azerbaijan, he was accompanied by Mr Didier Burkhalter, the head of the Swiss Department of Foreign Affairs.

Other prominent Azerbaijani human rights defenders are not so lucky and remain detained on fabricated charges, including  Leyla and Arif Yunus, Intigam Aliyev and Rasul Jafarov, all of whom were imprisoned as a result of their human rights activities during the the crackdown on free speech and civil society that has taken place in Azerbaijan over the past year.

This entry was posted on June 15, 2015 at 18:56 and is filed under Front Line, Human Rights Defenders.

Tags: Arif Yunus, Azerbaijan, Baku Games, Didier Burkhalter, Emin Huseynov, European Games, Front Line (NGO), Human Rights Defenders, Intigam Aliyev, Leyla Yunus, political asylum, Rasul Jafarov, Switzerland