2009 annual report

Azerbaijan

Alliance of Women for Civil Society
$70,000
To conduct mock trials and mock public hearings and show other organizations in the South Caucasus how to organize such events. The Alliance will hold events in Tbilisi, Baku, and the regions of Azerbaijan that will explore current political controversies through structured discussion and debate. The Alliance will work with a Georgian NGO to organize two events in Tbilisi.

Azerbaijan Committee Against Torture
$37,800
To provide legal assistance to victims of torture, conduct monitoring of places of detention, and expose abuses in places of detention. The Committee will provide legal assistance to victims, represent them in court, and pursue legal remedies against perpetrators of torture. The organization will establish four regional offices, publish reports, and hold press conferences based on its findings.

Azerbaijan Foundation for the Development of Democracy (AFDD)
$28,552
To provide training and networking opportunities for regional NGOs. The AFDD will conduct a public opinion poll which will be distributed among activists. It will select activists from 15 regions of Azerbaijan for participation in a training on issues facing NGOs. After the training, participants will organize roundtables in their respective regions. The AFDD will also publish a handbook about regulations governing NGOs.

Azerbaijan Lawyers Association
$39,107
To defend the right of citizens of Azerbaijan to political participation. The Association will monitor politically motivated trials and arrests as well as the appeals process during the municipal elections. It will also conduct twelve training seminars focusing on electoral law in anticipation of upcoming elections. The Association will hold four roundtables to draft legislation with experts and parliamentarians.

Center for Economic and Political Research (FAR Center)
$64,450
To develop the analytical skills and political and civic consciousness of Azeri youth and assist them in formulating their own advocacy agenda. The FAR Center will manage a youth resource center and conduct civic education seminars for members of youth organizations, alumni of exchange programs, and university students. The Center will also conduct a national opinion poll about youth political attitudes.

Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE)
$179,854
To strengthen the role of Azerbaijani business associations in the policy making process. The Entrepreneurship Development Foundation will build an alliance of business associations, engage the alliance in advocating for reforms, develop policy proposals based on a National Business Agenda, foster dialogue with the government, and organize a media campaign.

Center for National and International Studies
$70,000
To conduct eight regional conferences on the liberal tradition in Azerbaijan and Turkey. The program will demonstrate that liberal reform has historical precedents in Azerbaijan and Turkey and thereby bolster public confidence in Azerbaijan’s democratic potential. The papers presented at the conferences will be published as a book.

Dalga Youth Movement
$23,172
To conduct trainings which introduce young activists to the values and ideals of civic activism, democracy, and universal standards of human rights. Dalga will conduct seminars for youth activists in Baku and in the regions of Azerbaijan. Dalga will also publish an insert in its monthly newspaper, Alma. Finally it will maintain a website.

Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Center (EMC)
$53,089
To promote accountability of parliamentarians prior to the November 2010 elections. The EMC will conduct nonpartisan events to raise the level of interest in elections, inform the voters about their rights, and encourage them to participate. Over the course of the year, the EMC will organize 35 election related forums to raise awareness and inform voters.

Ganjabasar
$33,891
To publish a weekly newspaper in the western region of Azerbaijan. The newspaper will review current events and the social and political situation in the country, focusing on threats to freedom of the press and other concerns for civil society. In 2009, the newspaper focused on the municipal elections and objective information about candidates, their platforms, and obstacles to free elections in Azerbaijan.

Institute for Reporter Freedom and Safety (IRFS)
$59,082
To conduct monitoring and advocacy on issues of press freedom in Azerbaijan. IRFS will conduct media and court room monitoring and hold biweekly meetings and seminars. It will continue its independent investigations into unsolved attacks against journalists. IRFS will publish a daily press release and circulate appeals as needed. Finally, the organization will train university students through its internship program.

Internews Azerbaijan Public Association
$51,453
To maintain its Azerbaijan Media Forum website, www.mediaforum.az. The Media Forum will publish texts and drafts of relevant legislation; monitoring of abuses against the media; analytical articles; and original reporting. The site will host monthly on-line forums and organize biweekly public opinion polls. Internews will provide coverage of events pertaining to Azerbaijanis in Iran, the parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan, and advocacy on human rights topics.

Janub Khabarlari
$37,693
To publish and distribute its newspaper throughout the southern region of Azerbaijan. Over the course of the next year the newspaper will pay particular attention to the parliamentary elections which will be held in November 2010 and the organization of campaigns and voting in the southern region.

Law and Development Public Association
$33,786
To enable effective communication between parliamentarians and their constituents in five regions of Azerbaijan. The Association will hold trainings for activists about the roles of parliament, organize constituency forums, conduct seminars for parliamentarians, and host a study tour to Baku. The Association will maintain a web page and publish a manual and a comprehensive report covering its work with parliament since 2005.

Legal Education Society (LES)
$61,270
To conduct monitoring of Azerbaijan’s compliance with Council of Europe rulings. LES will conduct research into government compliance with rulings of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) with respect to Azerbaijan, provide legal representation for appeals to the Constitutional Court, and hold seminars on these cases. The organization’s staff will teach courses in Constitutional Law, publish books and monitoring reports, and maintain a website.

“Legal Help” Public Association
$31,415
To train candidates and local observers for the municipal elections in three provincial towns in southern Azerbaijan. The Association will conduct nonpartisan seminars on the role of NGOs in defending civil rights and publish a bulletin and a book about the legal procedures related to municipal elections. The organization will offer its legal expertise on human rights abuses, the labor rights of citizens, and NGO registration.

Media Rights Institute
$40,200
To improve the observance of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Law in Azerbaijan. The Institute will work with its network of activists to generate 300 information requests and monitor government response. It will pursue court cases to obtain greater compliance. The Institute will produce monitoring reports, which will be discussed during public presentations, contribute articles for publication, and maintain a website.

National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI)
$80,000
To strengthen the capacity of Information Centers to operate independently, provide access to unbiased news and facilitate civic participation in politics. NDI will train Center staff in administrative, financial and program management, and facilitating citizen advocacy initiatives. NED funding in early 2009 will provide a smooth transition to non-Endowment funding without unnecessary expenditures or loss of staff, institutional memory, and activists.

OL! Azerbaijan Youth Movement
$32,396
To organize seminars, lectures, and roundtables which propagate democratic values among young people. OL! will support six discussion clubs and organize a series of roundtables, known as the “Policy Agora,” and theoretical lectures about democracy. OL! will select 100 young people who will attend the lectures and participate in the clubs. These youth will constitute the first “class” of the Free Thought University.

Social Union of Legal Education of Sumgait Youth
$69,723
To train young human rights activists to operate its NGO Resource Center in Sumgait, publish the Yukelish Namine newspaper, and maintain a website. The Social Union will train young leaders with twice-monthly seminars on subjects related to civil society and democracy activism. The newspaper will cover the situation in the country, focusing in particular on threats to press freedom and other civil society concerns.

Society of Women of Azerbaijan for Peace and Democracy in the Caucasus
$49,708
To support a two-part program to assist human rights defenders from Central Asia and Azerbaijan. The Society will organize two three-day seminars for Uzbek and Azerbaijani human rights defenders in Baku, which will focus on secure communications and personal security. It will also organize two Civic Forums to facilitate broad public participation in the discussion of political developments.

Society of Women of Azerbaijan for Peace and Democracy in the Caucasus
$30,182
To support its think tank, the Center for Public Policy, which will focus on five topics during the coming year. The staff will research each topic and hold a series of discussions with experts to determine advocacy efforts. The expert group will prepare articles and events on each topic. Quarterly working groups will be held for in-depth discussion and debate on the selected topics.

Turan News Agency
$62,450
To maintain Contact, a web-based daily newspaper launched with NED support in 2007. The newspaper makes a portion of the materials produced by Turan available on the internet for free. Contact covers politics, business, legislative developments and human rights, social issues, and education. Articles appear in three languages: English, Russian and Azerbaijani, and are continuously updated throughout the day.

“Uluchay” Social Economic Innovation Center
$39,320
To encourage the participation of young people in public life in Sheki. The Society will organize biweekly events, including a speaker series and documentary film screenings. It will conduct training for 300 village teachers to help them to incorporate civics into the school curriculum. The Society will also train a select group of young journalists to write articles for a blog and a local newspaper.

Women’s Media Watch Azerbaijan
$30,865
To hold regular discussions about human rights, democracy, and empowering women as media professionals and citizens. The organization will hold roundtable discussions, publish newspaper inserts, expand its web site, and produce a weekly talk show for a national television station, ANS. The discussions will focus on advancing women’s participation in public life and gaining greater public awareness of the problems and obstacles facing women.

“Young Leaders” Education, Training and Development Union
$45,766
To run the Ganja Media Center, which maintains a news web site and hosts events for journalists. The site will expand its coverage of news in the western part of Azerbaijan by supporting a network of local correspondents, providing journalism training, and producing six television shows for a local television station.