This joint submission by CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation and the Center for National and International Studies (CNIS) outlines concerns related to the environment in which civil society organisations and human rights defenders operate in Azerbaijan, and discusses threats they face in the exercise of the freedoms of expression, association and assembly. CIVICUS and CNIS are concerned by persistent harassment, intimidation and attacks against independent journalists, human rights defenders and political activists by state agents. Civil society organisations (CSOs) and media houses have also had to face various forms of bureaucratic harassment for their criticism of the government.
