Leading Advocacy Group’s Office Demolished in Baku, Azerbaijan

Democracy Alert

[August 17, 2011]

Leading Advocacy Group’s Office Demolished in Baku, Azerbaijan

Eurasia
Printer-friendly version

On the evening of August 11, the Institute for Peace and Democracy’s office, as well as the Women’s Crisis Center, was bulldozed in Baku, Azerbaijan as part of an urban renewal project, which includes building a park in honor of former president Heydar Aliyev. Leyla Yunus, head of the Institute and World Movement participant, was not given any prior notice of the demolition and was unable to save any of her personal items from being destroyed. According to Ms. Yunus, the building was valued at $625,000 and its demolition came as a complete surprise to her. She filed suit against the city in February 2011 to prevent such an action and received an injunction from the court to block demolition until the case was finalized.

 
Property prices have significantly increased in Azerbaijan recently and the government of Azerbaijan has actively forced evictions and demolished private property to claim property in the city center. According to RadioFreeEurope, the government will pay as little as 25 percent of the actual property value to its owners. Ms. Yunus has been a prominent activist against the urban renewal and forced eviction policy of the government. She has organized several protests and even wrote on the front of the Institute’s building “This is private property and the destruction of the house violates the Constitution and the European Convention of Human Rights.” City workers were ordered repeatedly to paint over this and Ms. Yunus continued to repaint those words to make her point known. It is also very troublesome that the government would openly violate the court’s injunction and not allow the due legal process from occurring with Ms. Yunus’ suit.
 
The World Movement for Democracy calls on the government of Azerbaijan to respect the rights of civil society activists, including their property rights, to allow them to operate freely and securely. The World Movement encourages participants to contact the Azerbaijani government to urge the respect for private property, for the government to work collectively with citizens to address these issues, and to adequately compensate victims of “urban renewal” projects.
 
For more information, go to:
 
To view a video of the demolition, go to:
 
Statement from Leyla Yunus in English and Russian:
 
Letters of support for Leyla Yunus from the Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee: