Azerbaijan: Freedom of religion violations awaiting European Court decision

Azerbaijan | 15 July 2019

On 3 July 2019, Forum 18 published a report on Azerbaijan"s 42 cases of violations of freedom of religion or belief currently waiting for the Strasbourg European Court of Human Rights" decision. In all, 77 individuals and 7 communities are involved. The list of violations of freedom of religion include 10 categories (e.g. imprisonment, police raids, house search, state censorship, movement restrictions, punishment for talking about faith, etc.). The majority of those affected by these violations are Muslims (23 cases) and Jehovah"s Witnesses (18 cases).‚ Rolf Zeegers, persecution analyst at World Watch Research, comments: "It will be interesting to see how the authoritarian government of Azerbaijan - which has been promoting the country as a "˜Land of Tolerance" - reacts to Forum 18"s devastating report. Although the violations primarily concern Muslims and Jehovah"s Witnesses, it should be clear that Christians in Azerbaijan are under the same pressure. Little (if any) improvement is to be expected in the short-term."