​UN experts suspend their visit to Azerbaijan

Baku. 18 September. REPORT.AZ/ The representatives of the United Nations human rights body announced that they had decided to suspend their visit to Azerbaijan. Report informs citing the press service of the UN, the visit was suspended due to the fact that they had not been able to communicate with prisoners, detainees and defendants without witnesses in a number of jails and detention centers.

The delegation of four people was prevented from visiting several places where people are being detained despite repeated attempts to do so and assurances by the Azerbaijani authorities of unrestricted access to all places of deprivation of liberty.

The delegation members halted their work on 14 September but the Head of the delegation remained in Azerbaijan to seek further engagement with the country’s authorities on the basis of the information currently at their disposal.

Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1984 and came into force on the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture in June 2006. It gives experts of the UN an opportunity to visit places of detention without warning and talk with prisoners and detainees without the representatives of the authorities.