"Statement at the end of visit to Azerbaijan by the United Nations Working Group on Business and Human Rights", 27 Aug 2014

In our statement today, we would like to outline some initial observations from our visit. Our official mission report to the 29th session of the Human Rights Council in June 2015 will include further observations and recommendations...In our meeting with the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights (the Ombudsman) we learned about some of its activities that relate to the business and human rights agenda. However, overall, our meetings with the Government, business enterprises and civil society revealed that awareness of business and human rights issues and the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights is very limited. We observed that grievances are addressed largely through the court system and that there is little awareness of the role that non-judicial mechanisms can play to complement and supplement judicial mechanisms...When asked about country’s most salient business and human rights issues, our interlocutors typically mentioned two areas: (1) the situation facing internally displaced persons (IDPs) as a consequence of the armed conflict in and around the Nagorno-Karabakh region of the Republic of Azerbaijan; and (2) the “right of entrepreneurs” to start and grow a business in the country...[A]n independent civil society and media play an important role in promoting transparency and accountability in business operations, particularly where human rights concerns may arise...We regret that we were unable to engage with some civil society actors who were recently placed in pre-trial detention...We also note that several civil society organizations have recently experienced difficulties with registration and have had their bank accounts frozen...[Also mentions corruption, abuses linked to the construction sector, labour rights and responsible management of revenues from natural resources.]