Azerbaijan Sanctions Review Act of 2024

On September 19, 2023, Azerbaijan launched a military assault on Nagorno-Karabakh, resulting in the forced displacement of the region’s entire Armenian population following a 10-month blockade of the Lachin Corridor, which deprived Armenian civilians access to food, fuel, medicine and other essential goods.

Azerbaijan’s blockade and forced displacement of Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenians followed a major escalation of the conflict during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War, during which Azerbaijani military and government officials named in section 2(b) have committed war crimes and serious human rights violations, including the extrajudicial killing of Armenian civilians and prisoners of war; the arbitrary detention, forced disappearances, and torture of Armenian civilians and prisoners of war and other captives; and the deliberate targeting of civilian populations.

Azerbaijan’s continued detainment, torture, extrajudicial execution, and other serious human rights violations against prisoners of war and captured civilians calls into serious question their commitment to human rights and ability to negotiate an equitable, lasting peace settlement.

Reporting conducted in September 2022 by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination expressed deep concern over “[a]llegations of severe and grave human rights violations committed during the 2020 hostilities and beyond by Azerbaijani military forces against prisoners of war and other protected persons of Armenian ethnic or national origin—including extrajudicial killings, torture and other ill-treatment and arbitrary detention”.

The Department of State’s Country Reports on Human Rights Practices released in April 2024 documented “credible reports of: unlawful or arbitrary killing; torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by members of the security forces; harsh and sometimes life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary detention;” and other concerns regarding the lack of due process in Azerbaijani trials of Armenian civilians and servicemembers.

Human rights organizations have consistently reported on Azerbaijan’s abuse of prisoners of war and other human rights violations, including a report by Human Rights Watch in March 2021 that found Azerbaijani forces had abused ethnic Armenian prisoners of war and subjected them to “cruel and degrading treatment and torture either when they were captured, during their transfer, or while in custody at various detention facilities”.

In December 2021, an International Court of Justice ruling ordered Azerbaijan to protect from violence and bodily harm Armenians detained during and since the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War.

At least 90 prisoners of war and hostages are still detained illegally by Azerbaijan as of November 2023 according to the Armenian Government, with independent observers noting that the true number of detainees is likely much higher given the many individuals still missing, and the limited information available due to Azerbaijan’s misrepresentation of their status in an attempt to justify their continued captivity.

Following Azerbaijan’s offensive in 2023, numerous high-ranking Armenian officials in Nagorno-Karabakh were arrested and detained by Azerbaijan, including Ruben Vardanyan, Davit Manukyan, Davit Babayan, Levon Mnatsakanyan, Arkadi Ghukasyan, Bako Sahakyan, Arayik Harutyunyan, and Davit Ishkhanyan.

International humanitarian law requires parties to an international armed conflict to treat prisoners of war humanely in all circumstances.

It is a war crime to willfully kill, mistreat, or torture prisoners of war, or to willfully cause great suffering or serious injury to body or health.

In addition to being bound by customary international law, Azerbaijan is a party to the Geneva Conventions, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) which strictly forbid extrajudicial killings.

Despite its international legal obligations under the Geneva Conventions and repeated calls by the United States Government, Azerbaijan has not released all relevant persons and instead continues to detain new prisoners of war, hostages, and captured civilians, nor have those responsible for serious human rights violations and war crimes faced legal consequences.

Azerbaijan’s brutal repression of domestic political opposition is of grave concern for the human rights of Azerbaijanis.

The detention and subsequent torture and ill-treatment of opposition leaders, activists, and critics of the Aliyev government like Dr. Gubad Ibadoghlu, a prominent scholar who taught in the United States and was recently released to house arrest, raises fundamental concerns about due process and the integrity of the legal proceedings against him and others who express political dissent in Azerbaijan.

On March 6, 2024, Azerbaijani authorities detained six journalists in Baku and accused them of unfounded smuggling charges as part of an ongoing crackdown on independent media in Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan is designated as “Not Free” by Freedom House due to the absence of political rights, civil liberties, and rule of law.

Determination— Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the President shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees a determination, including a detailed justification, of whether any person listed in subsection (b) meets the criteria for the imposition of sanctions pursuant to—

Persons listed— The persons listed in this subsection, which includes officials of Republic of Azerbaijan, are the following:

Appropriate congressional committees defined— In this Act, the term “appropriate congressional committees” means—