Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent representations he has made to his counterpart in the Azerbaijan Government on human rights in that country.

​The Government monitors the human rights situation in Azerbaijan closely and regularly presses the government to meet its international obligations. I raised human rights with President Aliyev and Deputy Foreign Minister Khalafov during my visit to Azerbaijan in September. In recent months UK officials in Baku have raised concerns over a range of issues including the conviction of journalist Afghan Mukhtarli and pressure faced by Azerbaijan's human rights lawyers.