Federal Lezghi
National and Cultural Autonomy

Fact-Finding Mission To Dagestan & Azerbaijan: Report Presentation At European Parliament

The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO), in coordination with the office of Mr. François Alfonsi MEP, chair of the Intergroup on Traditional Minorities, National Communities and Languages, and the Federal Lezghin National and Cultural Autonomy (FLNCA), will hold a report presentation on the strife of ethnic and religious groups in Dagestan and Azerbaijan on 17 September 2013 in the European Parliament.

 

 

 

SAVE THE DATE

 

 

 

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Democracy and Minority Rights in Azerbaijan

 

 

Presentation of Fact-Finding Report

 

 

 

Tuesday 17 September 2013

 

11:00 – 12:30

 

 

 

Altiero Spinelli Building 5E1

 

European Parliament, Brussels

 

 

 

Brussels, 10 September 2013 - The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO), in coordination with the office of Mr. François Alfonsi MEP, chair of the Intergroup on Traditional Minorities, National Communities and Languages, and the Federal Lezghin National and Cultural Autonomy (FLNCA), will hold a report presentation on the strife of ethnic and religious groups in Dagestan and Azerbaijan on 17 September 2013 in the European Parliament.

 

UNPO recently coordinated a fact-finding mission to Dagestan and Azerbaijan from 27 August – 1 September 2013 with Members of the European and Flemish parliament, journalists and academics, to objectively assess the political situation of ethnic and religious minorities within the context of the upcoming presidential elections in Azerbaijan. The findings of this mission will be presented by the mission delegates to Members of the European Parliament, media and civil society actors.

 

The Lezghin people, indigenous to the northern Caucasus, as well as numerous other vulnerable groups, have suffered from a multitude of cultural and linguistic erosions, political oppression and gross underrepresentation. In Azerbaijan, they face persecution and ache from a deficiency of rights, which is once more proven by the pre-electoral crackdown on civil society whereby Lezghin activists and many others were arrested on false charges. The fact-finding report aims at providing European officials and policy makers with objective information and testimonies regarding the current perspectives for minority rights, democracy and the rule of law in Dagestan and Azerbaijan.

 

 

FOR REGISTRATION, please contact e.piaget@unpo.org with your name, DOB, country of residence, email, organization and ID/passport number.

 

For media queries please contact:

 

Maud Vanwalleghem | +32 251 314 59 | mv@unpo.org

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UNPO

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