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In Azerbaijan, 2014 was marked by journalists and human rights’ defenders’ arrests, travel bans, prosecutions against activists, and a wave of intervention into the work of local and international NGOs, according to the Index of sustainable development of civil society organizations in 2014 – Azerbaijan, compiled by USAID (United States Agency for International Development), news portal Caucasian Knot reports.

According to the article, the research on Azerbaijan is based on expert surveys. Index of sustainable development of civil society organizations (CSOs) was assessed with 5.1 scores (“reduction of stability”) while it had remained unchanged on 4.7 score mark (“development of stability”) since 2009.

The government used strategic and systemic measures to silence the dissent even after Azerbaijan took up 6-month chairmanship in the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in May, 2014, USAID points.

The deterioration of the atmosphere of civil society took place against the backdrop of a sharp decline in the world oil prices, which caused the economic decline in the country. Despite the fact that in 2014 the government adopted the Concept of "Azerbaijan 2020: A Look into the Future", which defines the strategy of economic growth and involves the development of cooperation between state bodies and civil society institutions, the space for the NGOs’ activities got narrower in reality. The restrictive amendments introduced into the laws "On NGOs", "On Grants", "On state registration of legal entities" and the Code of Administrative Offences in late 2013 seriously affected the deterioration of the situation. They came into force in February 2014, according to USAID report.

During the year, very few NGOs were able to register their grants in the Ministry of Justice and obtain the corresponding approvals to withdraw the received funds from bank accounts. On 17 October 2013, the Parliament adopted further amendments and addendums establishing a four-stage system for providing grants to CSOs. To do that, the donor organization must register its branch and office in Azerbaijan, enter into an agreement with the Ministry of Justice, provide grants in accord with the topics agreed upon with the government, and obtain a government approval for each concrete grant. The local beneficiary of the grant must also get a government approval beforehand. Moreover, in 2014, the Ministry of Justice got the power to impose administrative penalties on the NGOs.

In 2014, the authorities conducted large-scale checks in NGO offices, intervened in their affairs, froze bank accounts, groundlessly refused to register grants. Leaders of a number of human rights organizations were arrested. The hotels refused to provide their conference halls for NGOs’ events. This practice had been applied only in the regions of the country before.

In December 2014, the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe recommended Azerbaijan to cancel the restrictive measures in the legislation regarding the NGOs. However, the authorities rejected those suggestions calling them intervention into the internal affairs of the country, Caucasian Knot cites USAID’s report.

More than 40 local and foreign NGOs were forced to suspend their activities in the face of the repressive legal environment. The chairpersons of over 30 local NGOs either left the country or shifted to underground activities, or else, ceased to operate altogether. Meanwhile, there were very few NGOs in Azerbaijan to meet the international standards in management, HR, project and financial management. The CSO activity restrictions, established in 2014, made the event organization even harder. Either hundreds of grants were frozen, or the funds were returned to the donors.

USAID further highlights the aggravation of the “Financial resources” index which got 5.7 scores against the 5.5 in the 2013. The legislative restrictions led to the decrease of the donors’ interest in Azerbaijan. The donor organizations were hit by direct pressure and left the country (particularly, The National Democratic Institute (NDI) of the US, the Open Society Institute (Soros foundation), IREX and others, while Oxfam, World Vision, Carnegie Foundation and others were sued).

The notion of local philanthropy is not developed in Azerbaijan. The legislation made it difficult for the local sources to provide aid to the NGOs, by banning anonymous donations and restricting the sum of cash to $50. Meanwhile, the government increased its support for the pro-government NGOs. The budget of the Council on State Support to NGOs under the Auspices of the president of the country was 7.5 million manats ($7.14 million), which was by 50 percent more than it was past year.

According to the USAID research, only the pro-government NGOs in Azerbaijan have communication with the government and can cooperate with state agencies in carrying out their projects. Dozens of NGO leaders, who stood up for their arrested colleagues, faced pressures themselves, were interrogated in the Prosecutor General’s Office, were searched in the airport, and faced travel bans, according to the article.

The negative climate created around the NGOs by the pro-government media led to the aggravation of the “Public Image” index of the civil society, according to the research. The majority of the NGOs still do not publish annual financial reports, do not have websites, and have limited possibilities to inform about their activities, which the government uses to accuse the CSOs of lack of transparency, USAID concludes, according to the Caucasian Knot.

Civil society activist and investigative journalist Aynur Imranova told the Caucasian Knot correspondent that her bank accounts have been frozen for over a year, and she cannot go abroad. “My bank accounts were frozen because of the so called criminal case against the local and foreign NGOs. I do not know what I have got to do with that. I did not have any big projects. I only got a small grant to carry out a journalistic investigation about the situation of the Azerbaijani migrants in Russia from the Danish organization International Media Support. My bank accounts were frozen and I am not allowed to leave the country because of that. They constantly call me to investigation. They ask me about Khadija Ismayilova, Emin Huseynov and other activists. This constant stress has undermined my health. There seems to be no end in sight…” Imranova told the correspondent of the Caucasian Knot.

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