Azerbaijan elections - what are the human rights issues?

Presidential elections are due to be held in Azerbaijan on 9th October.
for official information on candidates and procedures see the

Central Election Commission of Azerbaijan

However a number of human rights commentators have raised concerns 

 see Amnesty International
Human Rights watch
International Crisis Group
United Nations Commissioner Human Rights

IFEX- reports of attacks on journalists.

Radio Free Liberty

of particular value is the The Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety (IRFS)  a local Azerbaijani NGO which has reports and discussion on censorship and criticism of attacks on the press.

Association for Civil Society Development in Azerbaijan. also has a very useful website discussing the development of civil society in Azerbaijan it also has news stories.

For information on the assessment of election observers see OSCE  which has reports on current and past missions.

see news stories and reports on 

Eurasia net

Transitions online 

Economist blogs

Caucasus Elections watch 

Azeri report 

 

 finally useful for academic analysis of the region is

The Caucasus Analytical Digest (CAD)  a monthly internet publication jointly produced by the Caucasus Research Resource Centers, the Research Centre for East European Studies at the University of Bremen, the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies of the George Washington University, the Resource Security Institute in Washington, DC and the Center for Security Studies (CSS) at ETH Zurich with support from the German Association for East European Studies (DGO). Good coverage of political and economic events. Archived issues free online.