Human rights violations in Azerbaijan: the European Union and the Council of Europe must act!

The European Union (EU) and the Council of Europe are struggling to adopt a firm response to the growing number of human rights violations in Azerbaijan. The November 2024 report submitted by the European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ) on the tragic fate of Armenian, Azeri and French detainees in Baku prisons paints a damning picture: torture, arbitrary detention, ethnic homogenisation and systematic repression of civil society are the daily lot under Ilham Aliyev's regime. As COP29 takes place in Baku, the tacit complicity of European institutions comes into focus. Why does Europe remain silent?

Since Ilham Aliyev came to power in 2003, taking over from his father Heydar Aliyev who was in power between 1993 and 2003, Azerbaijan has become a state where fundamental rights are trampled underfoot. Successive constitutional amendments have consolidated a dynastic regime, removing presidential term limits and increasing the powers of the President to the detriment of other institutions. In 2016, Ilham Aliyev created the post of Vice-President, which he gave to his wife Mehriban Aliyeva, a position she is still currently holding. The country is ranked among the world’s least free states in the world by Freedom House's 2024 index, positioned between Afghanistan and Belarus.

Armenian hostages after the ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh

In September 2023, more than 120,000 Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh were forced into exile, in an ethnic cleansing denounced by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), the European Parliament and also the French National Assembly. Around a hundred Armenians, both military and civilian, including senior politicians, were taken prisoner and are being held hostage by Baku. Since then, they have been subjected to torture and inhuman and degrading treatment in Azerbaijani prisons. To support them, the ECLJ has co-organised a conference with Christian Solidarity International at the Palais des Nations in Geneva on the sidelines of the ^57th session of the Human Rights Council, on the 1^st of October 2024.

A striking example: Ruben Vardanyan, philanthropist and former Minister of State of Artsakh. In June 2024, his lawyer lodged an urgent appeal with the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, alleging acts of torture and degrading treatment such as not being allowed to sleep, drink water or sit down. These practices violate the Geneva Conventions and the European Convention on Human Rights, to which Azerbaijan is a signatory. Torture in prisons is not a new phenomenon, as evidenced by the regular reports of the Council of Europe and UN Committees against Torture.

Political repression in Azerbaijan and reprisals against France

Azerbaijani political dissidents are not spared. Gubad Ibadoghlu, an economist critical of the regime, was arrested in July 2023. His detention illustrates the systematic repression of opponents, often under cover of trumped-up charges. More than 300 political prisoners, both opponents and ordinary human rights activists, and 23 journalists are currently languishing in the country's jails. Baku even hunts down its opponents who have taken refuge abroad, such as the blogger Mahammad Mirzali, who was stabbed 16 times in Nantes in March 2021 and miraculously survived, while Vidadi Isgandarli died of his injuries in Mulhouse in October 2024.

Foreign citizens other than Armenians are not immune to the abuses of the Azerbaijani judicial system. Three French nationals are currently being arbitrarily detained in Baku, while French President Emmanuel Macron and French Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher have cancelled their trip to COP29 amid the height of diplomatic tensions. Aliyev criticises Macron for his support for Armenia, while Macron criticises Aliyev for his interference in France's overseas territories, in particular New Caledonia. The sentencing in September 2024 of Frenchman Théo Clerc to three years' imprisonment for a graffiti (with no political message) in the Baku metro, while a New Zealander and an Australian, as responsible as him, were only fined, it is a good illustration of the use of the Azeri judicial system as diplomatic leverage against France.

The COP29 scandal in Azerbaijan and the silence of the European Union, bound by Azeri gas

Against this backdrop, the ECLJ is outraged that Azerbaijan has been chosen to host COP29, a major international climate summit, in November 2024. All the more so considering that hydrocarbons account for 90% of the country's exports, provide almost half of government revenue, and account for around a third of GDP, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). COP29 is a double whitewash for Azerbaijan: on the one hand, it gives the country a misleading image of ecological responsibility, and on the other, it overshadows the serious violations of human rights.

Europe can no longer afford to be a bystander. By tolerating Azerbaijan's abuses, it is betraying its own values and compromising its moral influence. The European Commission must apply the sanctions requested by the European Parliament and call into question the 2022 gas agreement. At the time, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, described Azerbaijan as a ‘reliable partner’. She must now open her eyes, as must Charles Michel, the President of the European Council, who travelled to Baku to warmly congratulate Aliyev on the organisation of the COP. While the PACE suspended the Azeri delegation in January 2024, the Council of Europe must also sanction Azerbaijan for its serious human rights violations and one of the worst records for applying the rulings of the European Court of Human Rights.

Read here our new report: "Human Rights in Azerbaijan: The Tragic Fate of Armenian, Azeri, & French Prisoners"