Imprisoned Azeri democracy campaigner takes human rights prize

The second Václav Havel Human Rights Prize – which honours outstanding civil society action in defence of human rights – has been awarded to Azerbaijani human rights defender Anar Mammadli.

As Mammadli is currently in prison, the €60,000 prize was presented to his father, Asaf Mammadov, at a special ceremony today at the Palais de l’Europe in Strasbourg, on the opening day of the autumn plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

Representatives of the two other shortlisted nominees – the B’Tselem Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories and Malta’s Jesuit Refugee Service – also received diplomas during the ceremony. “All three nominees merit our highest consideration,” the President said.

Presenting the trophy, PACE President Anne Brasseur, chair of the selection panel, said: “Mammadli’s commitment lies in the area of promoting democratic institutions and civil and political rights. Annar Mammadli is our long-standing partner who shared with our Assembly, but also with other bodies of the Council of Europe, including its Commissioner for human rights, his valuable expertise on the situation in his country.”

Mammadli is the founder and chairperson of an influential and experienced organisation in Azerbaijan dedicated to observing elections. Since 2001, his Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Centre (EMDS) has been carrying out independent election monitoring in Azerbaijan.

He contributed to programmes and events on monitoring of elections, participation and education of voters, as well as the design of materials and reports during 13 elections in Azerbaijan. He was arrested in December 2013 on charges of “abuse of power” and other matters, and sentenced to five and a half years in prison in May 2014.

In 2014, 56 nominations were received which fulfilled the criteria for the Prize.

The Jesuit Refugee Service Malta is the Maltese branch of the global Jesuit Refugee Service, a non governmental organisation working to protect the human rights of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants, through legal advice, psychosocial support and humanitarian assistance and through strategic litigation and advocacy.

Much of its work is focused on detention centres, where staff and volunteers identify individual protection needs of detainees, provide them with information about asylum and immigration procedures, assess social, psychosocial and medical needs, and obtain the  release of children, pregnant women and vulnerable persons.