From September 22 to October 3, a delegation from the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) visited Azerbaijan.
According to the Committee’s statement, this was its sixth visit to the country.
The CPT reported that the purpose of the visit was to examine the conditions of detention, treatment, and legal safeguards of persons held in law enforcement custody, penitentiary institutions, and psychiatric facilities. The delegation also reviewed the measures taken by the Azerbaijani authorities in response to the Committee’s previous recommendations.
During the visit, members of the delegation held meetings with several state institutions and presented their preliminary observations to the Azerbaijani authorities at the end of the mission.
In July 2024, the CPT had issued a statement declaring that Azerbaijan was not cooperating with the Committee. At the time, Theodoros Rousopoulos, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), called on the Azerbaijani authorities to resume cooperation.
Azerbaijan’s voting rights in PACE have been suspended since 2024, due to the country’s failure to fulfill its human rights obligations. In response, the Azerbaijani government announced that it was suspending cooperation with the organization.
On September 23, President Ilham Aliyev met with Alan Berset, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, at the United Nations headquarters in New York. The meeting drew attention as a potential step toward continuing dialogue between the two sides.
The CPT’s reports are typically prepared within a few months after a visit and, according to Council of Europe rules, are published only with the consent of the member state. The Committee had previously made public its 2022 special visit report on Azerbaijan, which expressed concerns over allegations of ill-treatment and torture of detainees.
The final report on the CPT’s latest visit to Azerbaijan is expected to be released in the coming months.
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