Human rights activists adopt appeal to protest anti-Azerbaijani campaign on eve of European Games
By Trend
Despite the campaign to discredit the global-scale event – the
First European Games – Azerbaijan didn’t reduce its efforts towards
holding this event, said the appeal adopted by the participants of
the round table dedicated to the European Games.
The round table was held at the initiative of influential human
rights organizations of Azerbaijan and with information support of
Trend Agency.
The round table was attended by the heads of humans rights
organizations holding various positions, including, the heads of
Azerbaijan Foundation for Democracy Development and Human Rights
Protection, Oil Workers' Rights Protection Organization, Society
for Humanitarian Research in Azerbaijan, Human Rights Center of
Azerbaijan and Legal Assistance Public Union..
An appeal was adopted following the discussions during the round
table.
The participants of the round table assessed the Games as a
significant event for Azerbaijan.
“The European Games will be held soon and holding of these Games
will open broad opportunities for popularizing Azerbaijan,” said
the appeal.
Discussing the criticism against the European Games, the leading
human rights activists who have contributed to the strengthening of
the statehood, freedom of speech and human rights since the period
of gaining independence by Azerbaijan till now, said that the
attempts to link the holding of the Games with the problems in the
human rights sphere in the country are inadmissible.
"It is regrettable that after the futile initiative of boycotting
the first European Games in Azerbaijan, various international
circles are using the issue of human rights as a means for ensuring
their interests,” the statement said.
"As the heads of the organizations, dealing with the protection of
human rights in Azerbaijan, we always voiced similar issues, tried
to contribute to their solution by sending critical messages and
proposals to the state organizations,” the statement said.
This campaign against Azerbaijan strikes a great blow to the
effectiveness of the activity of the human rights defenders, who
achieved the results in solving the issues through a dialogue, said
the appeal.
“As the human rights activists, playing a major role in the life of
society and the country, we urge everyone to spare no effort for
the successful holding of the European Games,” the appeal said. “We
believe that this is a sports event and it will become a
significant and historic event for the country. "
Baku 2015 is the first-ever European Games, an exciting and
innovative multi-sport event for the continent that will take place
on June 12-28, 2015.
There will be a total of 20 sports at Baku 2015: 16 Olympic sports and four non-Olympic sports. More than 6,000 athletes from across Europe will be representing their nations over 17 days of competition.
Baku was awarded the games by the European Olympic Committees (EOC) in December 2012.
---
Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Here we are to serve you with news right now. It does not cost much, but worth your attention.
Choose to support open, independent, quality journalism and subscribe on a monthly basis.
By subscribing to our online newspaper, you can have full digital access to all news, analysis, and much more.
You can also follow AzerNEWS on Twitter @AzerNewsAz or Facebook @AzerNewsNewspaper
Thank you!