Friday, September 19 2014

Baku. The mission of the UN Subcommittee on Human Rights (UNSHR), is realizing its mandate on the basis of the UN Convention against torture and inhuman or degrading treatment, cut short its visit to Azerbaijan, and prematurely left the country because of the obstacles that  it has  faced, reads the press release of the Baku Office of the United Nations sent to Turan agency.

Despite assurances of official structures of Azerbaijan on unimpeded access to places of detention, the delegation was able to visit only a part of institutions, and was not able to carry out their duties to the fullest.

"As a result of a serious violation of Azerbaijan's obligations under the Optional Protocol, the delegation was unable to fully implement its mission, planned for September 8-17, and was forced to stop it in advance,"- the report says.

Delegation suspended its operations on 14 September. However, some of its members remained in Baku and continued talks with officials on the basis of the information gathered.

Thus, on 16 September, the head of the delegation Suzhun Aisha Muhammad met with Deputy Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan.

<UNSHR  expects from  the authorities of Azerbaijan start of a constructive dialogue and compliance with its obligations under the Optional Protocol. UNSHR has a mandate to make recommendations to state bodies to establish safeguards against serious risk of torture and ill- treatment in places of detention, " reads the document.

The delegation  of UNSHR on Azerbaijan included: Aisha Suzhun Muhammad, Milos Yanokovich,

Margaret Suzuki Osterfeld, Miguel Sara-Iguiniz, and Victor Zaharia.

By the end of their missions,  the UNSHR  presents closed records to the states calling on to submit them to the public.

The  mission visited in jail human rights activist Leyla Yunus, but immediately after their departure  pressure on Yunus strengthened. When Yunus called the mission members back, the request was not passed to the representative of the UN.