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The UN and the Council of Europe will convene the first Global Forum on Youth Policies in Azerbaijan, a country which has on numerous recent occasions imprisoned peaceful youth activists, reads the article published on the Amnesty International site.

According to the statement Over the last years, several young human rights defenders, bloggers and social media activists have been arrested and sentenced to years in prison for nothing more than trying to exercise their right to freedom of expression. Those who peacefully protested against their conviction too, were thrown behind bars.

Amnesty International notes that there are currently no fewer than 21 prisoners of conscience in Azerbaijan. Of these three are young people under 23 years of age.

As an example the human rights organization notes NIDA which is a pro-democracy youth movement which has been facing pressure and harassment from the Azerbaijani authorities ever since its creation in 2011, and several of its members have been criminally prosecuted.

Eight members of the movement were arrested in the period from March to May 2013 after they created a Facebook event calling for a peaceful protest against non-combat military deaths in the Azerbaijani army. They were charged with “inciting public disorder” and possession of illegal drugs, the statement reads.

On 17 October 2014 the President of Azerbaijan signed an order on two activists, though the rest of the activists are still behind the bars.

“They will be in prison at the time when Azerbaijan will be welcoming participants at the Global Forum on Youth Policies, and will remain there for many years after unless Azerbaijan starts to demonstrate respect for basic human rights and fundamental freedoms,” the human rights organization reports.