Last week UEFA announced the 13 cities
that will be hosting the Euro 2020 Championships. I like many people was
pleased that the finals would be coming to Wembley. However, after closer
inspection of the other host cities, I came to realise that Baku in Azerbaijan
was also on the list to become a home for a series of group stage matches as
well as a quarter final.
According to Amnesty International the list
of human rights violations regularly perpetrated by the Azerbaijani authorities
is long and includes clamping down on the right to freedom of expression,
assembly and association including persecution of activists, arresting them on
trumped up charges and denying them the right to a fair trial. They currently
count at least 17 prisoners of conscience behind bars solely for peacefully
expressing their views.
This leaves us asking the question;
should countries with poor human rights records really be allowed to host the
European Championships? I personally don’t think they should be able to.
Although, that sadly leaves us asking which countries truly have a perfect
Human Rights record? Sadly, not many.
More information on Amnesty
International’s work on Azerbaijan can be found here.
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