Should human rights activists call for boycotts of sports events hosted by repressive regimes? What responsibility do sports organisations have? How can journalists effectively cover the full scope of human rights, social and political issues surrounding the Baku European Games?
In June 2015, Azerbaijan’s capital Baku will host the first European Games under the umbrella of the European Olympic Committees. Controversy already surrounds this new sporting venture, following reports earlier this year that Azerbaijan will foot the bill for all 50 national Olympic teams to attend.
The country’s internal political situation gives further cause for concern. Over the last twelve months, a wave of arrests of key critics — including human rights activists, election monitors, lawyers and investigative journalists — has almost entirely silenced Azerbaijani civil society, leaving activists and journalists in exile to highlight the regime’s on-going attacks on freedom of expression. Several large NGOs have been closed and legislative amendments make it almost impossible for critical groups to get foreign funding. The government controls all broadcast media, and in December, it forcefully closed the Baku branch of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a US-funded media organisation.
Meanwhile, Azerbaijan continues an expensive PR campaign to promote its image abroad – with considerable success. International criticism has been largely muted; with the EU and the US looking at ways to foster closer and strategic ties with Azerbaijan.
During this interactive session, our panellists will explore the relationship between sport and human rights, examining the argument that Azerbaijan is using such high profile events to whitewash its image amidst criticism from domestic human rights activists as well as international bodies regarding its human rights records.
The panel, chaired by ARTICLE 19, will bring together Azerbaijani human rights activists, political commentators and international human rights experts. The panellists will include Emin Milli, a former political prisoner in Azerbaijan, now director of Meydan TV, Rebecca Vincent, coordinator of the Sport for Rights Campaign, Giorgi Gogia, Human Rights Watch’s senior researcher on Azerbaijan who was recently denied entry into the country, and others to be confirmed.
The event format will be as follows:
12.30 – 13.00: Arrival, lunch and informal discussion
13.00 – 14.00: Interactive session, featuring Azerbaijani journalists and activists as well as human rights experts.
14.00 – 15.00: Opportunity for one-on-one interviews/discussion with panel members
The Panellists: Emin Milli is an activist, blogger and co-founder of Meydan TV, an alternative online Azerbaijani news service, operating from Berlin. In August 2009, Milli and Adnan Hajizada, (known as the “donkey bloggers”), were found guilty of hooliganism and imprisoned for more than a year after posting an online video satirising the Azerbaijani government. @eminmilli
Rebecca Vincent is a human rights activist and former U.S. diplomat who has been working on Azerbaijan for nine years. In December 2012, her Azerbaijani residence permit was revoked in connection with her human rights work in the country, and she has been unable to return to Azerbaijan ever since. She is currently the coordinator of the Sport for Rights campaign. @rebecca_vincent
Giorgi Gogia is a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch with over a decade of experience working on Azerbaijan. Giorgi was recently banned from travelling to Azerbaijan, preventing him from monitoring the trials of human rights defenders behind bars on politically-motivated charges. He was deported without any explanation after spending 31 hours in Baku’s Heydar Aliyev airport. @Giorgi_Gogia
This event is hosted by Article 19, Human Rights Watch and Index on Censorship on behalf of the International Partnership Group for Azerbaijan (IPGA). The IPGA is a coalition of 22 international NGOs, coordinated by ARTICLE 19, working to promote and protect freedom of expression in Azerbaijan. The group arose from a broader International Partnership framework established by International Media Support (IMS) and Open Society Foundations (OSF) in 2010. Since then, the IPGA has engaged in joint advocacy around specific events, such as the Eurovision Song Contest and the Internet Governance Forum both of which were held in the Azerbaijani capital Baku in 2012; andhas regularly raised issues relating to human rights in Azerbaijan at international and regional institutions, notably the Council of Europe – with Azerbaijan chairing the body’s Committee of Ministers in 2014. – Read more about the IPGA
Where: Frontline Club, 13 Norfolk Place, London W2 1QJ When: Tue 28 April, 12:30pm Tickets: RSVP at [email protected]
These are people who have dedicated their time and energy to serve on the frontline of the fight for human rights. Leyla Yunus helps those who have been forcibly evicted from their home and works with activists in the South Caucasus region, including Armenia, the country with which Azerbaijan is locked in a frozen conflict. Rasul Jafarov was behind Sing For Democracy, a campaign to highlight rights abuses as Baku hosted the Eurovision Song Contest in 2012. Intigam Aliyev has represented victims before the European Court of Human Rights. Seymur Hezi provided critical coverage both as a reporter for Index award winning newspaper Azadliq, and in the online show Azerbaijan Hour. Khadija Ismayilova has on multiple occasions uncovered corruption connected to the ruling Aliyev clan.
Today, they are all languishing behind bars, on trumped up charges ranging from treason to tax evasion. The whole sorry affair is perhaps most aptly summed up by the dark irony of Leyla Yunus and Jafarov being in the process of compiling a list of political prisoners, when they themselves were added to it.
It is estimated that some 100 people are currently jailed in Azerbaijan over their political beliefs. Because it is worth remembering that while the past months’ crackdown has seemed especially ruthless, comprehensive and unapologetic in its bid to silence critical voices, these tactics are not new. For years, those daring to speak out against the ruling elite have been threatened, harassed, arrested and even killed.
Index board member and director of Sage Publications David McCune presented the special award at the ceremony in London (Photo: Alex Brenner for Index on Censorship)
Journalist and activist Idrak Abbasov was brutally beaten by security forces and police in a 2012 attack. He accepted the special award from Oslo, where he now lives in exile, on behalf of his compatriots. “In Azerbaijan, not a single television or radio channel is free. In effect, all media are under government control with the exception of a few newspapers and the Internet. There is no freedom of expression or association,” Abbasov said in a pre-recorded speech. “There are no free elections. The country is ruled by a terrible regime. Freedom of speech has been completely stifled. Our colleagues have been murdered. Elmar Huseynov was killed in 2005. Novruzali Mamedov was murdered in prison in 2009. Rafiq Tagi was killed in 2014. No one has been called to account. Many journalists have been brutally and repeatedly beaten, and no one has been punished. This is Azerbaijan. This is the horrific way the country is being ruled.”
The eyes of the world will soon again be fixed on Azerbaijan. The inaugural European Games – organised by Europe’s Olympic Committees – are coming to Baku this summer, not long after the capital last hosted an international mega-event, the 2012 Eurovision final. The line pushed by the regime, and parroted by their supporters at home and abroad, is that this is young and developing democracy on the right path. But three years on, the situation has not improved; on the contrary. This award is for Azerbaijanis continuing their struggle for freedom, rights and dignity – in the hopes that it will soon be won.
Idrak Abbasov summarised his hopes for the future in his closing remarks: “I call upon the world community to help Azerbaijan and freedom of speech in Azerbaijan. So that our colleagues might be released. So that our country might become a normal country in which we and others might live freely.”
These were just some of the chants from the scores of Azerbaijanis who gathered in Baku’s Mashul stadium on Sunday. The estimated 10,000 strong crowd was protesting the recent devaluation of the country’s currency and its detrimental effects on living standards. Demonstrators also spoke out against human rights abuses in the country, just 87 days before its capital is set to host the inaugural European Games.
In late February, Azerbaijan’s central bank made the choice to devalue the manat around 30% against the dollar and the euro, in response to the recent drop in oil prices. Around 70% of government revenues come from oil exports. But the policy has led to significant price hikes, igniting the public anger which culminated in Sunday’s protest.
“Ranging from consumer goods, real estate, construction materials, equipment, automotive spare parts, everything is so much more expensive,” stated the official Facebook event, which attracted over 2,400 attendees. The organisers — the oppositional National Council of Democratic Forces (NCDF) — however, put attendance on the day at some 10,000.
The peaceful rally was authorised by the the regime of Ilham Aliyev, who has been in power since succeeding his father Heydar in 2003. In 2013 he won the presidency for a third time, following his 2009 decision to remove term limits, and amid accusations that the vote was not free and fair.
It took place against the backdrop of the countdown to this summer’s International Olympic Committee (IOC)-backed Baku European Games. This fact was not overlooked by protesters. Ali Kerimli, from opposition party Azerbaijan Popular Front, criticised the amount of money spent on the event, saying it could instead be “directed to address the serious social and economic problems, raising the minimum wage and pension, which is only 150 manat,” according to contact.az.
The games have been budgeted at over £5.4 billion, with Simon Clegg, the organising committee CEO (formerly of the British Olympic Association), promising it will be “the most fantastic show ever staged in Azerbaijan”.
Kerimli also brought up the recent revelation that Azerbaijan will cover the costs of all 50 participating delegations. Such grants, most often connected to travel, have played an increasing part in Olympic bidding processes since they were first used at Sydney 2000. Today, “you cannot win without it”, according to the organising committee chair of this summer’s Pan American Games in Toronto. But as it is understood Azerbaijan was the only country willing to take on the risk of hosting the first ever European Games, it was not competing with anyone. Index contacted the European Olympic Committee (EOC) for documents related to the games, such a bid book detailing a city’s hosting plans, including the budget. We were told that as there is no formalised bidding procedure for the European Games, the only such documents that exists is the host city contract. This, we were told, is private and not available to the public.
Azerbaijani authorities have been fighting a PR battle on multiple fronts for some time, paying for everything from beautifying Baku, to glossy magazines and international mega-events like the Eurovision Song Contest — with sports playing an increasingly important role.
The most famous example to date is the shirt sponsorship deal with reigning Spanish champions Atletico Madrid. Fernando Torres and his teammates recently started doubling up as miniature Baku 2015 advertising billboards. If nothing else, this will help football fans familiarise themselves with the name by 2020, when the capital will host three group games and one quarter-final of the European Championship. Last September, Azerbaijan also became Manchester United’s “only Official Football Federation and Football Development Partner”. And with two failed Olympic bids behind them, it seems authorities are pinning their hopes on a successful European Games to further boost their credentials among global sports’ biggest players.
Despite the attempts to rebrand, Azerbaijan has failed to do away with accusations of human rights abuses and high-level corruption. Ranking 126/175 in the latest Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index, a leaked US diplomatic cable once compared the country to “the feudalism found in Europe during the Middle Ages”.
In fact, some of the corruption claims have gone hand in hand with ambitious projects. Ahead of the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest, journalist Khadija Ismayilova uncovered how the Aliyev family profited from the building of the Baku concert hall where the final was to be hosted.
Today, Ismayilova, the country’s most famous and celebrated investigative reporter, is in jail on what is widely believed to be trumped up charges. “I have spent three and a half months in detention waiting for one prosecution, which didn’t work out. Now another one starts. Let us see if prosecutors will produce something smarter than they did so far,” she wrote in an open letter last week.
Just a few months before Ismayilova’s arrest, a number of other prominent government critics — including human rights activists Rasul Jafarov and Leyla and Arif Yunus, lawyer Intigam Aliyev, and journalist Seymour Hezi — were all detained. Though not there in person, they and the other 100 or so political prisoners in Azerbaijan, played a key part in Sunday’s protest; their faces and names adorning posters across the stadium.
Human rights groups have warned that the European Games, like Eurovision before them, could be used to whitewash these rights abuses, and present a sanitised version of Azerbaijan to the world. With the another protest planned for 5 April, it seems government critics and regular people inside the country are determined to not let that happen.
From top left: Arif Yunus, Rasul Jafarov, Leyla Yunus, Khadija Ismayilova, Intigam Aliyev and Anar Mammadli
With the arrival of the European Union special representative for human rights in Azerbaijan, the country has a unique opportunity to adhere to the international commitments it has signed by releasing detained and imprisoned journalists and human rights defenders.
“We have seen a marked deterioration in the human rights situation in Azerbaijan in recent months. A host of prominent reporters and civil society activists, who play a vital role in holding government to account, have been arrested and their voices silenced. The EU can — and should — do much more to hold Azerbaijan to account,” said Index CEO Jodie Ginsberg.
The special representative, Stavros Lambrinidis, is in the country at the invitation of the Azerbaijani government.
The visit comes as the pre-trial detention of Arif Yunus, a human rights defender, was extended an additional five months. Arrested just days after his wife, Leyla Yunus, on 5 August 2014, Arif Yunus is facing charges of state treason and fraud.
Index recommends that Lambrinidis seek a more balanced view of the human rights situation in Azerbaijan by securing meetings with both Arif and Leyla Yunus, human rights and democracy activist Rasul Jafarov, Anar Mammadli and Bashir Suleymanli, human rights lawyer Intigam Aliyev and journalists Khadija Ismayilova and Seymur Hezi. Mammadli, Suleymanli and Hezi are currently serving prison terms, while the others are in pre-trial detention. Lambrinidis should also visit the the Swiss embassy, where journalist and human rights activist Emin Huseynov has been forced to take refuge from the ongoing crackdown on civil society.
