Nafas LGBTI: the case "A and 24 others against Azerbaijan"

Nafas LGBTI Azerbaijan Alliance presents a discussion on the events of September 2017 and the case "A and 24 others against Azerbaijan" in the ECHR court.

Nafas LGBTI Azerbaijan Alliance has been advocating for the protection of LGBTI+ rights and social inclusion in Azerbaijan since 2012. Nafas is an LGBTI+ human rights organisation that works with and for the community and sustains its activities in the country.

In 2017, police in Azerbaijan have conducted a violent campaign, arresting and torturing men presumed to be gay or bisexual, as well as trans* women. The campaign is known amongst the community as “LGBTI+ hunt”, as it was the first ever largest hunt of its kind carried out by officials in recent years.

In mid-September of 2017 the police have detained dozens of LGBTI+s on dubious charges, beating and using electric shocks on some of them to coerce bribes and information about other gay men and trans* women.

For this year, Nafas plans an advocacy campaign around the 2017 targeting of the LGBT+ community in Azerbaijan, the largest hunt of its kind carried out by officials in recent years. During the campaign, we will also discuss less institutional hate crimes that took place in May and June of 2021. We would like to note that Azerbaijan has been included in the reports of ILGA-Europe for the last five years as the worst country in Europe in terms of the legal, social and political status of LGBTI+s. Though homosexuality was decriminalised as one of the preconditions for membership in the Council of Europe in 2000, and sex between two men has not been a crime in the country since, no additional legislation or political action has been taken in the ensuing years. On the contrary, every year, the situation of LGBTI+s in the country worsens, especially in 2020 after the pandemic and the war with Armenia.

The discussion will be held on the Zoom platform. You can access the discussion link here.

Zoom Meeting

Meeting ID: 909 015 4098

Passcode: Nafas2012

Panelists:

Jala Bayramova [she/her] - moderator, lawyer of Nafas LGBTI Azerbaijan Alliance, she is studying for a master's degree in International Human Rights Law at Lund University,

Javid Nabiyev [he/him] - member of Nafas LGBTI Azerbaijan Alliance, he received a master's degree in International Human Rights Law from Central European University,

Lala Mahmudova [she/her] - member of Nafass LGBTI Azerbaijan Alliance and AZAD LGBT Collective, she received a master's degree in Women and Gender Studies from Loyola University in Chicago.