In a report on Azerbaijan published on Wednesday 21 June, the Council of Europe's commission against racism and intolerance (ECRI) notes the development of “good practices in education and migrant integration” over the last 7 years, but denounces the “persistent adversarial narrative against Armenia”.
The discourse is marked by “the use of inflammatory rhetoric in public statements by politicians” and “the wide dissemination of hateful content, in traditional and social media”.
ECRI is also concerned about “anti-LGBTI statements”, which have become “a common occurrence”, and is calling for measures to “ensure institutional independence and increase the effectiveness of the Commissioner for Human Rights”.
In a report on Armenia published on 20 June, ECRI also highlighted shortcomings concerning the mandate of the Human Rights Defender and the lack of a system for combating harassment of LGBTI pupils.
“LGBTI-phobic arguments have remained grossly unchallenged”, adds ECRI in the report on Armenia.
Link to the report on Azerbaijan: https://aeur.eu/f/7mb
Link to the report on Armenia: https://aeur.eu/f/7me (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)