Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland had a phone conversation with the president of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev during which he expressed concern for human rights defenders in Azerbaijan.

“In a telephone conversation with President Aliyev of Azerbaijan this morning, I expressed my deep concerns about the arrests of prominent human rights defenders in recent days,” says the statement issued following the phone conversation.

“We agreed that the joint Committee between the Presidential Administration and the representatives of civil society, established in 2005, and which worked until December 2008, will be re-convened and that a representative of the Council of Europe will be present in this Committee.

This meeting will take place as soon as possible and will be a good opportunity to go through the charges brought against the human rights defenders and to re-launch dialogue between the authorities and civil society”.