Civil Society in Azerbaijan

Under Fire But Still Resisting

Author(s): Shain Abbasov
Editor(s): Iris Kempe, Matthias Neumann, Robert Orttung, Jeronim Perovic, Lili Di Puppo
Series: Caucasus Analytical Digest (CAD)
Issue: 12
Pages: 13-14
Publisher(s): Center for Security Studies (CSS), ETH Zurich; Jefferson Institute, Washington D.C.; Heinrich Böll Foundation, Tbilisi; Research Centre for East European Studies, University of Bremen
Publication Year: 2010

The situation with basic human, civil, and political rights and freedoms has been deteriorating considerably in Azerbaijan since 2003 - the year in which a new president took office and a massive inflow of petrodollars started to fill the state coffers. Azerbaijan's democracy record has been traditionally poor, but it has worsened during the last seven years. Today, there is no political opposition or independent media. Society lives in a general sense of apathy and fear. Against this background, the country's civil society sector, which numbers more than 3,000 non-government organizations (NGOs), remains the only safeguard resisting the country's slide into full-scale dictatorship. Thus, the civil society sector is gradually becoming the main target of government attacks.

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