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Leyla Islam qizi Yunusova (née Valiyeva; born 21 December 1955, Baku),〔(ЮНУСОВА Лейла )〕 better known as Leyla Yunus, is an Azerbaijani human rights activist who serves as the director of Institute of Peace and Democracy, a human rights organisation. She is particularly known for her work helping citizens affected by forced evictions in Baku, on whose behalf she organized several small protests.〔 In July 2014, the Azerbaijani authorities have jailed Yunus under charges that are widely regarded as dubious. On 13 August 2015 Leyla Yunus was sentenced to 8.5 years in jail. ==Public career== Yunus is a historian by training and has written her dissertation on "English-Russian Rivalry on the Caspian Sea and Azerbaijan in the First Part of the 18th Century". In the last years of the Soviet Union, Yunus was active in pro-reform circles. In 1988, she founded the "Popular Front of Azerbaijan in Support of Perestroika", together with a small group of moderate intellectuals. Early on, this Popular Front of Azerbaijan was deliberately modeled on the example of the Popular Front of Estonia. By January 1990, Yunus together with Zardusht Alizadeh formed the Social Democratic Party, with the aim of establishing a moderate political voice. In April 1990, Yunus published an essay "The Responsibilities of a Politician", arguing for a democratic middle course and rejecting both extreme nationalism and the violent repressions of the Soviet regime. During the hostilities in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in 1992-1993, Yunus served as the Vice-Minister of Defence and Chief of the Information Analytical Centre of Ministry of Defence. Subsequently, Yunus has worked with civil society activists in both Azerbaijan and Armenia to call for peace. She and her husband Arif, a historian, are known for actively pursuing reconciliation with Armenia.〔 In 1998, she participated in the European Consultation of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation's Women Peacemakers Program (WPP), together with an Armenian counterpart, on active nonviolence. In 1995, she became the Director of the Institute of Peace and Democracy.〔 In 2009, Yunus was tried for libel after she stated that there was police misconduct in a recent kidnapping trial, alleging that police had been involved in further trafficking the two young girls involved.〔 Interior Minister Ramil Usubov filed suit against her, stating that she had "caused danger to police power". He demanded 100,000 manat in damages. Human Rights Watch protested the trial, stating that "a judgment against Yunus would set a terrible precedent for freedom of expression in Azerbaijan", while other international groups described the case as "one more example of the Azerbaijani government cracking down on free expression". In 2011, after a number of failed appeals to authorities regarding police behavior during evictions, Yunus stated her intention to appeal the evictions to the European Court of Human Rights. Authorities bulldozed Yunus' Baku office with only a few minutes' warning on 11 August 2011, the same day an article appeared in the ''New York Times'' in which she criticized forced evictions. She was in Norway on the day of the demolition. European Union representatives "deplored" the demolition, calling her organization "a regular partner of the international community". Azerbaijani Member of Parliament Khadi Musa Redzhabli denied that the bulldozing had been connected with Yunus' human rights work. Fifty-two human rights organisations from 14 countries, including Index on Censorship and the Rafto Foundation, sent a joint letter of concern to the Azerbaijani authorities condemning the demolition. In 2014, together with Rasul Jafarov, Leyla Yunus has lead a Working Group, which worked on compiling a list of political prisoners in Azerbaijan. In early August 2014 both of them have been arrested, and their names are the last ones on the list - final outcome of their work - which has been published by the Norwegian Helsinki Committee.〔 〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Leyla Yunus」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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