About the Institute for Peace and Democracy Institute for Peace and Democracy (IPD) began its activities in 1995 in Azerbaijan. During 20 years of active work IPD became one of the most authoritative human rights defending and research centers in the Southern Caucasus. Institute for Peace and Democracy completed more than 100 projects in the various areas: in protection of human rights; monitoring of the judicial system; legal education; peaceful solution of the conflicts; made researches on the rising role of Islam in the life of society, migration processes in Southern Caucasus, on situation of the national minorities. With the financial support of NED (USA) IPD organized in Baku for several years in a row, for the human rights defenders from Uzbekistan seminars on the problems of personal safety, education of the internet safety skills, on the privacy of the correspondence, preservation of the information on the computer.
In 1998, IPD established Azerbaijan Campaign to Ban Landmines (ACBL), which worked as the part of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL). In 2000, IPD established the first and only, in Azerbaijan, Woman Crisis Center (WCC).
Starting from 2005, IPD jointly with Armenian NGO Research Center “Region” is carrying out the joint informative project. In 2012, IPD and Research Center “Region” established the first and the single joint Azerbaijan – Armenian website “Public Dialogues” (http://www.publicdialogues.info/), on which the representatives of the various groups of Azerbaijan and Armenian society could freely negotiate.
IPD actively collaborates with such organizations as UNCHR, International Organization of Migration, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, OMCT, FIDH, Front Line, International Fellowship of Reconciliation, State of World Forum, East West Institute, International Alert, FEWER.
The IPD is the member of the Caucasus Forum of NGOs and Independent Research Council on the Migration of CIS and Baltic countries and also of the network of ethnological monitoring and early conflict prevention of CIS countries.
IPD consists of five departments: Conflictology and Migration, Protection of Human Rights, State and Society, Gender equality, Problems of Youth.
In summer 2014, director of Institute for Peace and Democracy Leyla Yunus and the chief of the Conflictology and Migration Department Arif Yunus were arrested on trumped up accusation in treason and espionage in favor of Armenia.
As the result of the pressure by international public opinion the court in Azerbaijan made decision to change to Leyla and Arif Yunus, recognized by Amnesty International as “prisoners of conscience”, the prison sentence for house arrest.
In 2015 Institute for Peace and Democracy was registered in Netherlands as NGO.
In April 2016, Leyla and Arif Yunus migrated from Azerbaijan and received political asylum in Netherlands.
IPD continues its work.