Azerbaijan

ENTRY INTO FORCE of the European Convention on Human Rights
15 April 2002
Number of implemented cases*
36
Examples
Woman wins legal fight to get her apartment back
The Azerbaijani courts backed the eviction of a family of internally displaced persons who were squatting Valentina Akimova’s apartment, but postponed any action being taken. The European Court of Human Rights found this to be unlawful and in breach of Valentina’s right to property. Thanks to the European court’s judgment, Valentina was able to get her apartment back.
European court proceedings lead to acquittal of opposition politician
Ilgar Mammadov was detained after writing a blog post criticising the government. The European Court of Human Rights ruled that his detention was politically motivated. For the first time ever, the Council of Europe launched a special procedure against a member state over Azerbaijan’s response to the judgment. This eventually caused Azerbaijan to release Ilgar and quash his conviction.
Compensation for the widow of a victim of police ill-treatment
Vidadi Sultanov complained of a range of human rights violations, including ill-treatment in police custody. He died before his case could be decided upon, but his wife continued his application. The Azerbaijani government settled the case, agreeing to pay Mrs Sultanova 10,000 euros.
* This figure includes all judgments and decisions from the European Court of Human Rights (including friendly settlements) concerning which the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers has decided that all necessary follow-up measures have been taken. Source: the database of the Department for the Execution of Judgments of the ECHR, HUDOC-EXEC.