"UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights announces its recommendations and suggestions on Azerbaijan", 27 Aug 2014

Member of the working group, Puvan Selvanathan said that they held meetings with the representatives of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Internal Affairs, Justice, other state agencies and Ombudsperson, representatives of the media and NGOs in Ganja. He said that the development was observed in other sectors, along with oil and gas sectors of Azerbaijan’s economy over the past decade..."However, there are some problems. It is necessary to...develop human rights-based business.”...Selvanathan said cases of corruption can be more effectively reduced by cooperating with civil society in accordance with law. He highly appreciated the activities on generating revenues through the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan: “The Oil Fund is quite progressive in terms of managing national resources. We proposed that SOCAR should put much emphasis on increasing transparency in all sharing agreements and employment contracts. State programs on human rights must reflect relations in the area of human rights and business more unambiguously”...[T]he main recommendations given to the government...[is]... to respect insurance of the dialogue between different participants in society: “Azerbaijan’s economic development has to lean on human rights and open dialogue. The Working Group came to the same conclusion. What’s important is that freedom of expression of society’s members and compliance with the law should be ensured”.