AZERBAIJAN
USCIRF–RECOMMENDED FOR SPECIAL WATCH LIST
KEY FINDINGS
In 2025, Azerbaijan’s government committed severe violations
of religious freedom. Authorities enforced the country’s highly
restrictive religion law, which criminalizes unregistered religious
activities and grants the government full control over registered
religious organizations. The religion law furthermore mandates
the official review and approval of religious materials, restricts who
can engage in missionary activities, and requires state approval of
religious leaders, among other limitations.
In April, law enforcement in Nakhichevan reportedly raided a
Protestant worship service for gathering without state permission.
Courts later reportedly fined five Azerbaijani citizens 1,500 manats
($882) each and fined and deported a family of foreign citizens over
the incident. Also in April, police in Baku reportedly detained mem-
bers of the unregistered religious group Ahmadi Religion of Peace
and Light for unfurling banners with religious slogans and imagery in
a public space. In June, the State Security Service and State Migra-
tion Service announced the deportation of three foreign citizens
for organizing religious meetings and engaging in missionary activ-
ities for “non-traditional religious movements.” In July, Shi’a Muslim
activists claimed that the government had placed restrictions on
Ashura-related religious activities that did not occur on the day the
state-controlled Caucasus Muslim Board recognized as the holiday.
The government continued not to process the registration applica-
tions of several nondenominational Protestant groups and still has
not granted Jehovah’s Witnesses registration outside of Baku.
Azerbaijan has yet to implement an alternative civilian service for
conscientious objectors. Dozens of military-age male Jehovah’s Wit-
nesses who reject military service on religious grounds have received
travel bans that prevent them from leaving the country, and in July,
a court sentenced Jehovah’s Witness Elgiz Ibrahimov to one year
in prison for refusing to serve in the military in accordance with his
religious beliefs. An appeals court later released him on probation.
Azerbaijan continued to unjustly imprison more than 200
Shi’a Muslims who practice their religion outside the government’s
preferred interpretation of Islam. Most Shi’a detainees face dubi-
ous drug-related charges, which authorities have a history of using
to target political dissent. Many Shi’a detainees have accused law
enforcement of torture and other abuse during their arrests and
imprisonment. In June, law enforcement detained and allegedly
abused Elgiz Mammadov, a member of the unregistered Shi’a
group the Muslim Unity Movement (MUM), which the govern-
ment has targeted for years. Authorities had previously arrested
and allegedly sexually assaulted Mammadov in 2022 after he
protested the trial of one of his fellow MUM colleagues. In July,
a court sentenced MUM member Tarlan Sayyadov to three years
in prison on drug-related charges. In August, police arrested
six women reportedly while distributing alms and protesting in
commemoration of the Shi’a holiday of Arba’in. Officers allegedly
threatened the women with sexual assault and forcibly removed
one woman’s hijab.
Historic Armenian religious sites in Nagorno-Karabakh and the
surrounding territories remain at risk following Azerbaijan’s retak-
ing of the territories in 2020 and 2023. As of July, satellite imagery
identified eight destroyed and another 10 damaged religious sites,
including churches, cemeteries, and other artifacts. Additionally,
family members have reported that Armenian prisoners are pre-
vented from receiving religious items, such as the Bible; however,
the Azerbaijani government has claimed prisoners have access to
religious materials.
In February, a USCIRF delegation traveled to Azerbaijan to
survey religious freedom conditions and meet with government
officials. While the Azerbaijani government has been willing to
engage with USCIRF, it has not made any significant progress since
then to address USCIRF’s recommendations.
RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE U.S. GOVERNMENT
■ Maintain Azerbaijan on the Special Watch
List for engaging in or tolerating severe
violations of religious freedom pursuant
to the International Religious Freedom
Act (IRFA);
■ Impose targeted sanctions on Azerbaijani
government agencies, such as the Ministry
of Internal Affairs’ Main Department for
Combating Organized Crime (also known
as Bandotdel), and officials responsible for
severe violations of religious freedom by
freezing those individuals’ assets and/or
barring their entry into the United States
under human rights-related financial and
visa authorities, citing specific religious
freedom violations;
■ Enter into a memorandum of under-
standing between the U.S. Department
of State and the Azerbaijani government
to develop and implement strategies
to improve religious freedom and other
human rights within the country; and
■ Allocate funds to programs that document
and/or report on religious freedom and
related human rights violations in Azerbai-
jan, such as Voice of America (VOA), Radio
Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), and the
National Endowment for Democracy (NED).
The U.S. Congress should:
■ Set conditions on foreign military financ-
ing and other security assistance to
Azerbaijan, requiring specified improve-
ments in religious freedom and related
human rights;
■ Raise ongoing religious freedom issues
through hearings, meetings, letters, and
other actions; and
■ Advocate for freedom of religion or belief
prisoners of conscience, including sup-
porting individuals in the Tom Lantos
Human Rights Commission’s Defending
Freedoms Project.
KEY USCIRF RESOURCES & ACTIVITIES
■ Commission Delegation Visit: Baku in February 2025
■ Hearing: Religious Freedom Conditions in Azerbaijan
■ Country Update: Religious Freedom Conditions in Azerbaijan
■ Frank R. Wolf Freedom of Religion or Belief Victims List and Appendix 2
Background
Azerbaijan has an estimated population of 10.6 million. Azerbaijan has
no official state religion. Approximately 96 percent of the population
identify as Muslim, composed of around 65 percent Shi’a and 35 per-
cent Sunni. The remaining four percent of the population consists of
atheists, Armenian Apostolic, Baha’is, Catholics, Georgian Orthodox,
Jehovah’s Witnesses, Jews, members of the International Society for
Krishna Consciousness, Molokans, Protestants, and Russian Orthodox.
Civil Society Crackdown
Azerbaijan’s ongoing repression of independent civil society, espe-
cially journalists and human rights defenders, has resulted in less
reporting and credible information on religious freedom and related
human rights within the country. In March, authorities arrested Bashir
Suleymanli, head of the Civil Rights Institute, one of Azerbaijan’s
remaining human rights organizations. In May, authorities arrested
VOA journalist Ulviyya Guliyeva (known as Ulviyya Ali) on spurious
smuggling charges in retaliation for her work. Guliyeva had consis-
tently reported on the human rights issues in Azerbaijan, including
the detention of Shi’a Muslim activists. During Guliyeva’s interroga-
tion, police allegedly physically assaulted her and threatened her
with sexual violence. In June, a court sentenced seven journalists
to between seven and nine and a half years in prison on fabricated
charges tied to their alleged work for Abzas Media, a local indepen-
dent Azerbaijani news outlet that reports on human rights issues.
As of the end of the reporting period, Azerbaijan was imprisoning
around 25 journalists.
International Bodies and Mechanisms
European bodies regularly highlighted Azerbaijan’s human rights
record, including on cases related to religious freedom. In July, the
European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ordered Azerbaijan to
compensate Vugar Rafiyev for violating his freedom of religion or
belief after authorities fined him and others for gathering to study the
writings of Muslim theologian Said Nursi in 2017. In September, the
Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhu-
man or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) visited Azerbaijan
to examine detainee conditions. The CPT had criticized Azerbaijan in
2024 for failing to cooperate with the organization and implement its
recommendations. In October, the ECHR ruled that Azerbaijan had
wrongfully disbarred human rights lawyer Yalchin Imanov for publicly
commenting in 2017 on torture allegations made by his client, MUM
leader Abbas Huseynov.
Key U.S. Policy
U.S.-Azerbaijani bilateral relations primarily focused on securing a
peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia, with the U.S.
government playing a mediating role. In August, President Donald J.
Trump hosted Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinyan at the White House for peace talks. There,
both countries entered into memoranda of understanding with the
United States meant to facilitate peace through economic develop-
ment, trade, and defense cooperation.
The Trump administration’s cuts to broader human rights
programming and U.S.-funded international media impacted organi-
zations that documented or reported on religious freedom violations
in Azerbaijan. A funding freeze for the U.S. Agency for Global Media
resulted in the shutdown of VOA and a major reduction in reporting
from RFE/RL. Organizations receiving funding from NED reported
major disruptions to their operations as NED’s funding was temporar-
ily paused amid the administration’s review of foreign aid.
Congress elevated human rights concerns in Azerbaijan through-
out the year, including related to religious freedom. In March, 60
bipartisan members of Congress urged U.S. Secretary of State
Marco Rubio to enforce prohibitions on U.S. military assistance to
Azerbaijan under Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act in part
due to Azerbaijan’s destruction of Armenian religious heritage in
the Nagorno-Karabakh region. In April, Representative Chris Smith
(R-NJ) led a Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission hearing on human
rights in Azerbaijan following its hosting of the United Nations’
annual climate conference. In July, more than 80 bipartisan mem-
bers of Congress urged Secretary Rubio to ensure the safe return of
Armenians displaced during Azerbaijan’s 2023 military campaign in
Nagorno-Karabakh. The letter mentioned Azerbaijan’s destruction of
Armenian religious sites in the region.
In September, Representatives Dina Titus (D-NV) and Gus Bili-
rakis (R-FL) reintroduced the Azerbaijan Sanctions Review Act (H.R.
5369), which, if passed, would require the Trump administration to
determine whether Azerbaijani officials mentioned in the bill par-
ticipated in human rights abuses and qualified for sanctions under
relevant U.S. law. Some of the Azerbaijani judges mentioned in the
bill have been involved in sentencing Shi’a Muslim activists. Members
of both the House and Senate introduced bipartisan resolutions con-
demning Azerbaijan’s crackdown on civil society and mistreatment of
academic and political activist Gubad Ibadoghlu, who faces charges
in relation to his alleged possession of religious materials.
The U.S. Department of State last placed Azerbaijan on its Spe-
cial Watch List under IRFA for severe violations of religious freedom
on December 29, 2023.
AZERBAIJANChair Vicky Hartzler Dissent on Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan should be designated a Country of Particular Concern
rather than Special Watch List due to its ongoing, egregious, and
severe violations of religious freedom. The country outwardly claims to
support religious freedom, yet inwardly does the opposite. It tortures
its citizens, controls religious activity, expels independent media and
the Red Cross, and destroys religious heritage sites.
Control of religion involves government approval for the pub-
lication and distribution of religious materials, requirements on the
registration of churches, appointments by the government of imams
to mosques, and government writing of sermons for Muslim services.
Shi’a religious actors imprisoned for their faith have been
subjected to beatings, threats of rape, and detention in horrid con-
ditions. The nearly two dozen Armenian Christian prisoners from
Nagorno-Karabakh, who were tried behind closed doors without
adequate legal counsel, have received beatings, psychological abuse,
lack of access to medical care and proper food, denials of Bibles,
and the erasure of cross tattoos through burning. Police are not held
accountable for these actions.
In addition, Azerbaijan continues to destroy religious monu-
ments and churches in Nagorno-Karabakh, erasing over 2,000 years
of Christian presence in that area. Satellite imagery has identified eight
destroyed and another 10 damaged religious sites as of July, including
churches, cemeteries, and other artifacts.
Azerbaijan’s treatment of religion and its people needs to
change. If Azerbaijan wants to be a full partner with the United States
and advance shared economic and strategic goals, it needs to take
meaningful steps to truly embrace religious freedom