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The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and its shareholder countries should urge the Azerbaijani government to end its crackdown on activists and independent groups during the bank’s upcoming 48th annual board of governors meeting which will be held in Baku, from May 2 to 5, 2015, the international organization Human Rights Watch says.

“The ADB is holding its annual meeting in Azerbaijan in the midst of Baku’s ever-harsher crackdown in independent voices. To stay true to its principles, the bank leadership should press the government to lift all restrictions that inhibit the work of nongovernmental groups and the media, emphasizing that their free functioning is essential for sustainable development,” Jessica Evans, senior international financial institutions researcher at Human Rights Watch, said.

According to information published on the website of the international organization, in the last year, the Azerbaijani government has arrested dozens of independent activists and journalists on false criminal charges. In April 2015, leading activist Rasul Jafaov and the country’s most prominent human rights lawyer Intigam Aliev were each convicted in separate cases on identical politically motivated charges related to financial crimes. The activist was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison and the lawyer to seven-and-a-half years.

It is noted in the material that the authorities have also imposed a new series of extremely restrictive laws on nongovernmental organizations, requiring government licensing of foreign donor organizations and government approval of each grant awarded. Authorities of Azerbaijan have also frozen bank accounts of over 50 groups, and in some cases accounts of their staff members. Many of these individuals and groups worked on government transparency and accountability, promoting public debate, media freedom, election monitoring, the rule of law, and other issues. The government of the country has also targeted development organizations.

Human Rights Watch wrote to the bank president, Takehiko Nakao, in February 2015 recommending key steps the bank should take ahead of its Baku meeting to respond to these developments. “If you are not able to work with the government to ensure that independent groups can meaningfully and freely participate in the upcoming annual meetings without fear of reprisals then the ADB should not hold its annual meeting in Baku,” the letter reads.

Evans also said that as the largest shareholders in the ADB, Japan and the US have a particular responsibility to call for the immediate and unconditional release of activists and journalists behind bars on politically motivated charges. She also added that the Azerbaijani government needs to be called out on its disingenuous claim that it seeks sustainable economic development, while at the same time it silences the very people who are best placed to hold the government to its word.

Azerbaijan has been a bank member since 1999 and has received more than US$1.5 billion in its funds for investment in infrastructure.

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