A delegation from the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture has called on the Azerbaijani authorities "to do more to protect the rights of people deprived of their liberty," following a visit to Azerbaijan from April 16 to 24.
According to a United Nations statement, experts visited police stations, pretrial and temporary detention centers, investigative isolation units of the Ministry of National Security, prisons, psychiatric hospitals, and social-care institutions throughout the country -- including in the Azerbaijani exclave of Naxcivan.
The four-member delegation also met with law-enforcement officials, medical staff, authorities, civil-society representatives, and "persons deprived of their liberty."
The UN body is expected to submit a confidential report to Azerbaijan's government.
In September, UN experts left the country after authorities prevented the team from visiting certain sites.
Activists, journalists, and government critics have been jailed in the past year as part of the government's crackdown on civil society.
Earlier in April, the U.S.-based nongovernmental group Human RIghts Watch (HRW) called on the international community to press Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to "release the critics it has thrown behind bars and end its crackdown."
