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Opinion

9 Dec 2019

In Focus: Human Rights Defenders in Eastern Europe and Central Asia

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In Eastern Europe and Central Asia, civil society organisations and human rights defenders are often seen as a threat to authoritarian rule and face a number of restrictions, pressures and threats, especially when they raise concerns about corruption related to the private sector and government procurement.

In the past year we have recorded dozens of new attacks against HRDs in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, with environmental activists and journalists covering human rights abuses being targeted in particular. In extreme cases, human rights defenders face death threats and judicial harassment that restricts or impedes their activities. Threats and attacks on these defenders, however, are largely underreported and receive relatively little global attention.

On this Human Rights Defenders Day, we celebrate the work of defenders from the region that focus on human rights impacts of business by highlighting a prolific woman human rights defender from Azerbaijan, Mirvari Gahramanli.

 

How is civil society currently operating in Azerbaijan, and in particular, what is the situation like for human rights defenders, working on business-related human rights issues (especially land rights, labour rights, environmental protection, health and safety, anti-corruption, etc.)?

The amendments and additions to the legislation governing civil society in 2013-2015 have limited the activities of NGOs. The toughest law, which led to the destruction of Civil Society (Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan “On Amendments to the Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan” On Grant “), was signed by the President on October 18, 2014.

Criminal laws, leading to imprisonment, may be applied to NGOs and their personnel who do not comply with this law. That is why Azerbaijan’s civil society is currently in a very difficult situation. The most affected people in the country are human rights activists. As a result, some human rights activists have left the country, while others have narrowed down their activities.

 

Who has been supportive of civil society here – have any investors or companies supported civil society?

Neither investors nor companies support civil society, especially human rights defenders. Only BP Azerbaijan invites NGOs to participate in the discussions about new projects. The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) does not cooperate with civil society at all. The companies that invest in our country and participate in the Production Sharing Agreements are mainly European companies. For Europe, gas is of great importance. So next year, Europe will receive 10 billion cubic metres of gas from Azerbaijan and 16 billion cubic metres in the following years.

In a word, business and political interests prevail over human rights, and for the past five years the European Union (EU), the Council of Europe (COE) and others are still not doing enough to try to reach an agreement with the authorities to change the law that limits their activities of NGOs. On the contrary, the representation of these institutions (EU, COE) in our country prefer to support the implementation of the projects themselves [without the involvement of civil society].

 

What are the main demands of civil society, in terms of business and human rights?

We want to make changes to the labour legislation: over the past 10 years, there have been 300 amendments to the Labour Code of Azerbaijan - mostly to the detriment of the employee. The reason is that 80% of Members of Parliament are employers. We have submitted proposals to the Cabinet of Ministers, the Parliament, the Ministry of Social Protection and the Parliament for amendments and additions to this Code for three years. We have been communicating about this for three years.

We want better respect for labour rights – people are employed on short term contracts that are contrary to Azeri law. This happens in both international and in national companies.

Health and safety at work are also an issue: recently, several workers got stranded on an oil platform in harsh weather for hours before being rescued. We require normal, safe ships that take employees to the platforms. Every time destructive storms and hurricanes happen, workers are suffering. Those who are on duty are not allowed to go to work.

There is a lot of gender discrimination, too, including at work, especially in local companies. For example, a woman may work as a labourer on the offshore platform - however, she cannot be appointed to a senior position, for example in SOCAR.

We also want better environmental protection and we want issues with pollution to be addressed: for example, BP is burning methane gas which results in emissions of carbon dioxide. Recently, we noticed Kazakh tankers are entering our waters. We don’t know yet why exactly they are here, but we know they are carrying lower-grade oil.

There are also serious issues with corruption that need to be addressed: a large amount of money goes to Europe. The press writes that the money was obtained as a result of corruption. But the origin of this dirty money that goes to Europe is not questioned. Unfortunately, there is no mechanism for returning this money to Azerbaijan.

 

 

 

These days, what happens when civil society tries to denounce these issues? Have you personally experienced attacks?

There’s economic retaliation against defenders – those that are vocal lose their employment in other lines of work, too, and then can’t get it back.

There are online and offline attacks. When I post things on Facebook about the issues surrounding the oil sector, I immediately get threats online and in person. The judiciary is closely monitoring my activities – they are trying to find a way to lock me up. But all I do is expose facts, so they haven’t been able to do it.

Sometimes they try to get revenge in other ways and frighten us. For example, in September last year, Salyanoil sued our organization. However, they were later forced to withdraw the application. Or on December 17 and 18 of last year, three articles were written against me in two days. On December 19 2018, someone tried to push me under a car. They ran off before I could take any photos and there were no security cameras there, so I have no proof, but my arm is still not completely fine.

 

 

Oil Workers’ Rights Protection Organisation (OWRPO) advocates for the protection of human rights in the energy sector in Azerbaijan and public control over financial flow from the sector towards ensuring society’s benefit. Mirvari Gahramanli has been chairperson of the OWRPO since its inception in 1996, and her work with the organisation has gained international recognition.

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