Media Monitoring on Ill-Treatment – Report (2019-2021)

An alumnus of the "Young Human Rights Defenders" training program of the Institute for Democratic Initiatives (IDI) has prepared "Media Monitoring on Ill-treatment - Report (2019-2021)".

During the preparation of the report, international and domestic legislation was reviewed, and the understanding of the right to not be subjected to torture was given.

Domestic and international law equally forbid any forms of torture and ill-treatment. One of the three unalienable rights guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is the prohibition of torture, which is inviolable in all situations. The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has emphasized the positive and negative obligations of the state in its precedents numerous times, outlawing the use of torture and other forms of ill-treatment against people under its jurisdiction and imposing a duty to effectively investigate such cases.

The ECtHR concluded that Article 3 of the Convention had been violated in 44 cases involving Azerbaijan until the end of 2021. According to the ECtHR, the prohibition against torture was breached three times, the prohibition of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment was infringed in 29 cases, and an effective investigation was not carried out in 24 cases.

The practical situation was assessed using the media monitoring method. The time frame for the media monitoring was from January 1, 2019, through December 31, 2021. The Google search engine and the websites of "Azadlig" radio, "Meydan TV," "Toplum TV," "BBC Azerbaijan," and other media outlets are both used for media monitoring.

As a result of the monitoring carried out in 2019, 27 allegations of ill-treatment were found in the media. Of these acts, 1 allegedly occurred in public or private places, and 26 in places of active state control .

In 2020, 33 allegations of ill-treatment were found in the media. Of these acts, 3 are alleged to have occurred in public or private places, 11 in both public or private places and in places of active state control, and 19 in places of active state control . 

As a result of the media monitoring conducted for 2021, 37 allegations of ill-treatment were found. Of these acts, 11 allegedly occurred in public or private places, and 26 in places of active state control.

Motives for alleged ill-treatment are as follows: 

  • participation in an assembly; 
  • to prevent election fraud from being revealed;
  • to coerce someone into signing a confession linked to a criminal case;
  • To force someone to sign a false statement:
  • violate quarantine rules; 
  • discourage political activity; 
  • not stopping the car which has a fine after the police ordering it to stop; 
  • to force to sign a letter waiving legal protection; 
  • to force the withdrawal of a complaint about the police; 
  • To force to give a false statement against Ali Karimli, the chairperson of the PFLP;
  • filming police activity at work;
  • forcing someone to record an apologetic video and write a confessional statement about self-harm.

In the concluding part of the report, it was determined that the right not to be subjected to ill-treatment and torture has been continuously violated in practice. Although there are some norms in the law regarding the right not to be ill-treated, this is not effectively enforced in practice.

The report's primary recommendations for the actions to be performed were provided at the end.