Tactics and tools for the protection
of Human Rights Defenders

2009/03/02

On March 02 the Judge of the Yasamal District Court read out the decision by the Interior Minister to drop the charges against Leyla Yunus, Director of the Institute of Peace and Democracy, and the decision of the court not to pursue the lawsuit.

Further Information

The decision by the Minister of the Interior to drop the charges was directly attributable to the protests from international human rights organisations. The letters and appeals from Front Line and other international organisations played a very special role. My lawyer who had negotiated with the representatives of the Interior Ministry said that the Ministry had been shocked to see so many appeals to the Presidential Administration, Foreign Ministry, Interior Ministry and the courts. They dragged out the process in order to gain time and decide what to do next. We on our side also made good use of this time: protests and appeals were flooding from you, from other international organisations and colleagues. We constantly published these materials in Azerbaijan’s mass media.

The decision by the Minister of the Interior to drop his lawsuit demonstrated once more that the authorities of Azerbaijan are sensitive to international opinion. Unlike the authorities of Central Asian countries (Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan) Azerbaijan’s authorities have a dread of international discussions and publicity about the unlawful acts of their officials inside the country. Appeals by international organisations do have an effect.

Thank you all.

Dr. Leyla Yunus Director The Institute for Peace and Democracy