Azerbaijan: Comments on the initial report submitted to the United Nations Committee Against Torture

This report examines Amnesty International's continuing concerns regarding torture and ill-treatment in Azerbaijan. It looks at Azerbaijan's commitments to prohibit torture under international law and proceeds to outline areas that continually fail to meet these safeguards. Pre-trial detention conditions are of particular concern, especially when those detained are denied adequate access to lawyers, family and medical care and confessions obtained under duress are still used in trial proceedings. The report also looks at the practice of the "hazing" of recruits in the army, ill-treatment of journalists, alleged beatings of demonstrators and opposition political party members and the failure of the authorities to investigate torture allegations.