{"id":163258,"date":"2012-02-21T16:32:32","date_gmt":"2012-02-21T12:32:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.epress.am\/?p=163258"},"modified":"2012-02-21T16:32:32","modified_gmt":"2012-02-21T12:32:32","slug":"amnesty-urges-azerbaijan-to-respect-human-rights-ahead-of-eurovision-contest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/2012\/02\/21\/amnesty-urges-azerbaijan-to-respect-human-rights-ahead-of-eurovision-contest.html","title":{"rendered":"Amnesty Urges Azerbaijan to Respect Human Rights ahead of Eurovision Contest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Amnesty International has urged Azerbaijan to address what it called the \u201cunsavory truth\u201d of its record on human rights, <span style=\"color: #000080;\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rferl.org\/content\/amnesty_urges_azerbaijan_to_respect_human_rights_ahead_of_eurovision\/24490447.html\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">RFE\/RL<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/span> reports.<\/p>\n<p>The human rights watchdog said in a <span style=\"color: #000080;\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amnesty.org\/en\/library\/asset\/EUR55\/002\/2012\/en\/4aa8b156-72f3-4439-8e65-d5c1506ea2ae\/eur550022012en.html\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">press briefing<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/span> that ahead of the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest in Baku the country should release 16 prisoners held since April 2011 in the wake of government protests.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCorruption and forced evictions, torture and ill-treatment, unfair trials and harassment \u2013 these all go unpunished, while restrictions on freedom of expression tie the hands of civil society activists,&#8221; said Europe and Central Asia Deputy Programme Director John Dalhuisen.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor much too long the international community has been turning a blind eye to repression in Azerbaijan. The 2012 Eurovision Song Contest should lift the glitzy curtains and expose human rights abuses to millions of people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On Jan. 17, Human Rights Watch said the Eurovision contest in Azerbaijan in May is being overshadowed by what the group described as &#8220;the illegal evictions, expropriations, and demolitions for hundreds of local residents forced out from their homes.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, on Feb. 20, a senior official at the presidential administration, Ali Hasanov, condemned what he called the &#8220;politicizing&#8221; of the Eurovision song contest.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Amnesty International has urged Azerbaijan to address what it called the \u201cunsavory truth\u201d of its record on human rights.<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":163240,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tstyn_error":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[17747,10265,19872,15655,38415],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163258"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163258\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}