OSCE PA human rights Chair Isabel Santos speaks at the 2014 Annual Session in Baku, 29 June 2014.COPENHAGEN, 15 June 2015 – The Chair of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Questions, Isabel Santos (MP, Portugal), today welcomed the decision of the government of Azerbaijan to grant safe passage out of the country to media freedom advocate and journalist Emin Huseynov, while urging much more action toward fulfilling OSCE commitments on human rights.

“It is a welcome development that Mr. Huseynov has been allowed by the authorities to leave Azerbaijan. I applaud the determination of the Swiss government, whose efforts made this possible. But it is also a sad day when a civil society leader is forced by his own country’s authorities to flee. I hope this is not a mere gesture by the government of Azerbaijan on the occasion of the European Games that it is hosting, but the start of an urgently needed, fundamental reversal of its record on human rights.

“Azerbaijan must immediately begin taking its OSCE commitments seriously, and should start by releasing all prisoners of conscience and political prisoners currently being held, including Intigam Aliyev, Khadija Ismayilova, Rasul Jafarov, Anar Mammadli and Leyla Yunus,” Santos said.

Huseynov, the director of the Azerbaijani Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety, was one of several advocates who participated in a side-event on civil liberties that Chairperson Santos organized during the 2014 OSCE PA Annual Session in Baku. Several weeks later, on 18 August 2014, he took refuge in the Swiss Embassy.