Azerbaijan: Key Human Rights Trends (January – June 2026)

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This thematic monitoring report of the Independent Lawyers Network shows that, during the first six months of 2026, the deterioration of human rights and freedoms in Azerbaijan continued in a systematic and consistent manner.

During the reporting period, the country adopted numerous legislative changes with a restrictive impact on freedom of expression, freedom of association and media freedom, privacy, and other rights. In addition, complaints of torture and ill-treatment, as well as other rights violations, involving political prisoners held in pre-trial detention at the Baku Pre-Trial Detention Facility increased sharply. The report also shows that neither law-enforcement bodies nor the courts have been able to substantiate the criminal charges brought against civil society and media representatives even according to the requirements of the country’s own restrictive legislation. This demonstrates that the practice of misusing criminal law and judicial proceedings as a tool of pressure against these individuals continues in its most blatant form.

Because the new legislative amendments are open to broad interpretation and further expand the executive’s discretionary powers, they have deepened the regression of human rights and the rule of law in Azerbaijan and further weakened the principle of legal certainty.

The report also finds that the number of complaints of torture, ill-treatment and rights violations at the Baku Pre-Trial Detention Facility has risen sharply. ILN’s monitoring shows an increase, during the first six months of 2026, in instances of torture, ill-treatment, gender-based violence and denial of the right to meet with family members at the Baku Pre-Trial Detention Facility, particularly with respect to political prisoners. During this period, at least 5 publicised complaints and 3 official complaints of torture and ill-treatment against and by political prisoners at this facility were recorded, but these complaints were not effectively investigated. The excessive allegations of torture and ill-treatment at the Baku Pre-Trial Detention Facility, combined with the restriction, from February 2026 onward, of political prisoners’ right to meet with family members, and the collapse of the oversight capacity of international monitoring mechanisms, indicate a further deepening of the climate of impunity.

The report provides a legal analysis of the practice of criminalising civil-law and administrative-law relationships in the criminal prosecutions brought against civil society organisations, journalists, human rights defenders and independent experts. The analysis concludes that classifying the failure to register public associations with the state, as well as the failure to register foreign-funding agreements (mainly service agreements) as grant agreements, as serious economic crimes conflicts not only with the principles of domestic criminal law, but also with the established case-law of the European Court, the official position expressed by Azerbaijan before the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on this issue, and Azerbaijan’s obligations under the 2000 bilateral Agreement guaranteeing the lawful use, within Azerbaijani territory, of US government assistance funds.

As of 30 June 2026, at least 49 people had been subjected to criminal liability within the framework of criminal cases based on this legal approach. Of these, 11 have been deprived of their liberty, 27 have had detention imposed as a preventive measure, 6 have had an alternative to detention imposed as a preventive measure, a search has been announced for 2, and 3 have been given a sentence not involving deprivation of liberty.

ILN finds that, in these cases, the legal construction of the charges rests mainly on three approaches: (i) treating the activity of unregistered public associations as unlawful; (ii) treating the receipt of foreign funding and grants outside the registration procedures as a criminal act; and (iii) linking funds received into foreign bank accounts to a presumption of smuggling. ILN considers these criminal cases to be the most blatant example of the practice of abusing restrictive grant legislation and criminal law. The charges are inconsistent with the principles of substantive criminal law, domestic legislation, tax and financial law, as well as Azerbaijan’s obligations arising from its international treaties.

The report also examines cases in which indictments drawn up by investigative bodies characterise service agreements concluded with the Government of the United States and the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland as “unlawful grants” and present the conclusion of these agreements as a “criminal conspiracy.” ILN considers that this practice seriously calls into question the preservation of relations of international cooperation based on the international legal order, respect for contractual obligations and the principle of legal certainty.

Overall, the report’s findings show that, during the first six months of 2026, the state of legislation and its application in Azerbaijan further weakened the protection of fundamental rights and freedoms, with criminal law and administrative mechanisms amended in ways that allow them to be misused as instruments of control over civil society, the media and individuals. This trend shows a systematic erosion of the rule of law, legal certainty and effective legal safeguards, a deepening of the inconsistencies between Azerbaijan’s domestic legislation and its international obligations, and a legal environment that has become entirely unfavourable to the conduct of independent and safe civil society activity in the country.

📄 Read the report