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Azerbaijan is carrying out a vicious attack on government critics, independent groups, and media, Human Rights Watch and Freedom Now said in a joint report released today. The crackdown has intensified just months before Azerbaijan is to host COP29, the United Nations Climate Change Conference, which opens in Baku on November 11, 2024.

The 74-page report, “‘We Try to Stay Invisible’: Azerbaijan's Escalating Crackdown on Critics and Civil Society,” documents the government’s concerted efforts to decimate civil society and silence its critics. The authorities have arrested dozens of people on politically motivated, bogus criminal charges. They have also arbitrarily enforced repressive laws that push independent groups and media to the margins of the law, heightening their vulnerability to retaliatory criminal prosecution. The groups documented 33 prominent cases of criminal prosecution, detention, and harassment. They found that Azerbaijani authorities have deliberately misused laws regulating nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to deny certain groups registration and funding, exposing people affiliated with them to criminal charges.

“The Azerbaijani government’s contempt for civic freedoms is putting independent groups and critical media on the path of extinction,” said Giorgi Gogia, associate Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “This is not the image the government should be projecting of itself on the eve of COP29. It is not too late for the government to improve its reputation by freeing imprisoned critics and immediately ending the use of spurious charges against civil society, but it needs to act now.”

Human Rights Watch and Freedom Now interviewed more than 40 Azerbaijani lawyers, detainees’ relatives, and staff and leaders of nongovernmental organizations. They reviewed rules and regulations relating to NGOs in Azerbaijan, legal documents relevant to specific criminal cases, European Court of Human Rights judgments, and other documents.

The authorities aggressively targeted three of the independent online news platforms that remain in Azerbaijan, including Abzas Media and Toplum TV. They arrested and criminally prosecuted at least 12 of these 3 platforms’ media professionals and several other affiliated individuals. The authorities have searched and sealed offices of Abzas Media and Toplum TV and confiscated equipment. They have hacked social media accounts and blocked websites. They have also arrested reporters with other outlets and leaders of several unregistered groups, as well as trade union activists and others who dared to criticize or protest government policies.

Among those arrested and in detention is veteran human rights defender Anar Mammadli, who in the weeks before his arrest co-founded a climate justice initiative with the aim of advocating civic freedoms and environmental justice in Azerbaijan ahead of COP29. He is awaiting trial on spurious smuggling charges.

In July 2023, the authorities arrested a renowned economist and anti-corruption activist, Gubad Ibadoghlu, who specializes, among other things, in revenue transparency in the oil and gas sector. Currently under house arrest, Dr. Ibadoghlu is awaiting trial on bogus charges related to counterfeit currency production and extremism and faces up to 17 years in jail if convicted.

The groups found that the Justice Ministry selectively applies legal provisions, or ignores laws altogether, to deprive certain groups of registration, limiting their ability to access funding or operate legally. While some groups and media outlets have had to close, others could continue their legitimate work only by operating on the margins of the law, at great personal risk. In 20 of 33 cases documented in the report, individuals were charged with smuggling money into the country. Some also face a slew of other criminal charges, including illegal entrepreneurship, money laundering, document forgery, and tax evasion.

It seems clear that in many of the cases, the authorities prosecuted activists in retaliation for attempting to carry out their legitimate work, in a context in which the regulations make it virtually impossible to operate independently and make them vulnerable to criminal prosecution, the organizations said.

Under international law, the Azerbaijani government has obligations to protect the rights to freedom of expression, assembly, and association. This includes the ability to form a legal entity to act collectively in a field of mutual interest. The European Court of Human Rights has issued numerous judgments finding that the Azerbaijani government’s failure to register independent NGOs violated the right to freedom of association. In at least one of these cases, the court found that authorities restricted rights with the “ulterior purpose” of punishing the applicants for their human rights activities.

The government should immediately ensure that independent groups can carry out their legitimate work without interference, including by repealing repressive laws regulating independent groups and the media, the groups said. The government should also immediately and unconditionally release all those behind bars on politically motivated charges.

Ahead of COP29, member states and the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) should emphasize to Azerbaijani authorities the importance of a thriving and independent civil society to realize ambitious climate action. They should stress that all individuals and groups should be free to call for and scrutinize climate action before, during, and after the conference.

“Through a combination of unjust detention and restrictive NGO rules, the Azerbaijani government is trying to eradicate civil society,” said Andrea Prasow, executive director of Freedom Now. “In this critical time before COP29, states and UN officials should urgently call on Azerbaijan to immediately and unconditionally free arbitrarily detained activists and commit to upholding human rights at COP29 and beyond.”