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Despite being a member of such bodies as the Human Rights Council and Council of Europe, several independent bodies, such as Human Rights Watch, have repeadedly criticized the Azerbaijani government for its human rights record.〔(TIGHTENING THE SCREWS. Azerbaijan’s Crackdown on Civil Society and Dissent 2013 )〕 Among other concerns, authorities have been accused of arbitrary arrests, indefinite detentions,〔 severe beatings,〔 torture, and forced disappearances. Despite the existence of independent news outlets, journalists who criticize the government are often severely harassed, imprisoned, and even physically assaulted. In the 2013-14 Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders, Azerbaijan ranked 160th out of an overall total of 180 nations. President Ilham Aliyev, inherited power from his late father Heydar Aliyev, who maintains an extensive cult of personality. Ilham Aliyev has often been criticized for failing to improve the situation of civil liberties from his father's policies. Public demonstrations against the ruling regime are not tolerated, and authorities often use violence to disperse protests. Since the Aliyev family first took charge in 1993, Azerbaijan has not had a single election deemed "free and fair" by international observers.〔Nohlen, D, Grotz, F & Hartmann, C (2001) ''Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume I'', p357 ISBN 0-19-924958-X〕 Corruption is considered to be endemic in all areas of Azerbaijani politics. The ruling family has aroused suspicion from various independent media outlets for their vast wealth, as evidenced by the purchasing of extensive multimillion-dollar properties in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. ==Electoral rights== Although Azerbaijan is nominally a representative democracy, recent elections there have widely been contested as fraudulent and 'seriously flawed.' Azerbaijani media coverage of the election is considered to be overwhelmingly biased in favor of the administration. Also, former President, Heidar Aliyev, is known to have filled the Central and Local electoral commissions with government supporters prior to various key elections since 2003.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=HRW: Azerbaijan: Presidential Elections 2003 (Human Rights Watch Briefing Paper, October 13, 2003) )〕 Azerbaijani non-governmental bodies were also banned from monitoring the vote. Irregular incidents such as voting chiefs running off with the ballots, ballot stuffing, multiple voting, and vote-tampering were recorded by international monitors. During the 2013 election, an official smartphone app run by the Central Election Commission inadvertently released final election results, a day before voting locations had opened. The results showed Ilham Aliyev having won with 72.76% of the recorded votes, while the nearest opposing candidate, Jamil Hasanli, tallied just 7.4%. The data was recalled, with an official claim is that the app's developer had mistakenly tested the app with 2008 election results, but the data released did not match the voter totals, nor the winning percentages of the 2008 election. On 10 October Hasanli called for the results to be annulled due to vote-rigging, claiming the elections were not free and fair because of electoral fraud and government control of all television channels. Azerbaijan has been harshly criticized for bribing members and officials from international organizations to legitimize the fraudulent elections, a practice which has been termed as "caviar diplomacy".〔(DISGRACED AZERBAIJAN AND THE END OF ELECTION MONITORING AS WE KNOW IT )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Europe's caviar diplomacy with Azerbaijan must end )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Baku Smooths Over Its Rights Record With A Thick Layer Of Caviar )〕 Recently this has been the case with MEPs of the European Parliament, whose positive assessment of Azerbaijani elections sparked a major scandal in Europe.〔(European MPs' praise for Azerbaijan election sparks row ) BBC News, 17 October 2013〕〔(MEPs' shameful support for the Azerbaijan election ) MEPs' shameful support for the Azerbaijan election, EU Observer〕〔(Andreas Gross: Azerbaijan with regressing democracy is patient placed in reanimation ward at Council of Europe ) Panorama, 25 October 2013〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Azerbaijan elections - Content - The Greens - European Free Alliance )〕 European Stability Initiative (ESI) think tank has published a series of detailed reports exposing the vested interest of the observation missions participating in Azerbaijani elections.〔(Caviar Diplomacy. How Azerbaijan silenced the Council of Europe ) was published on 24 May 2012〕〔(A Portrait of Deception Monitoring Azerbaijan or Why Pedro Agramunt should resign )〕〔("Disgraced. Azerbaijan and the end of election monitoring as we know it." 5 November 2013, Berlin )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Human rights in Azerbaijan」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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