The civilian population suffered widespread human rights abuses as a result of heavy fighting that erupted between Azerbaijan and Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh in September. Conflict-related violence led to deaths, injuries, destruction of livelihoods and displacement. Authorities intensified...

Azerbaijani human rights defender Elchin Mammad was sentenced to four years in prison on 14 October. He was arrested on 30 March on trumped up charges of theft and illegal possession of weapons and has remained behind bars since. Elchin Mammad is appealing the conviction. He is a prisoner of...

Azerbaijani opposition politician and journalist Tofig Yagublu was sentenced to four years and three months in prison on 3 September on trumped up charges. He started a hunger strike in protest and on 12 September he was transferred from a detention centre to a hospital after his health...

Opposition activist Agil Humbatov was released from a psychiatric hospital in Baku, Azerbaijan’s capital, on 1 July. He was forcibly placed there on 2 April after he criticised the authorities’ handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Opposition activist Agil Humbatov has been held in psychiatric detention in Baku, Azerbaijan’s capital, and injected with unknown drugs without his consent since 2 April after he criticised the authorities’ handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. On 2 June, his forced hospitalization was extended for...

Azerbaijani human rights activist and former prisoner of conscience Ilkin Rustamzade and his family have been facing threats and harassment since Ilkin Rustamzade launched a petition asking the government to provide social security to persons affected by COVID-19.

Azerbaijani human rights defender Elchin Mammad was arrested on 30 March and has been detained since under trumped up charges, after publishing online a critical report on the human rights situation in Azerbaijan. Elchin Mammad should be released immediately and unconditionally.

Azerbaijani journalist and opposition activist Tofig Yagublu has been detained since his arrest on 22 March on suspicion of “hooliganism”. His family is concerned about his health in detention amidst the COVID-19 pandemic taking hold in Azerbaijan. He should be released immediately.

Azerbaijani activist Bayram Mammadov was released on 29 April after having spent 30 days in administrative detention under trumped-up accusations.

Azerbaijani activist Bayram Mammadov was detained on 30 March and sentenced to 30 days of administrative detention for resisting lawful police orders. Amnesty International believes the charges are trumped-up. On 2 April, during the appeal hearing when the decision was upheld Bayram Mammadov...

Azerbaijani prominent blogger Mehman Huseynov was released on 2 March following two years of unjust imprisonment on trumped-up charges.

On 5 April, Azerbaijan’s Supreme Court ordered the release of Aziz Orujov, an independent journalist and CEO of the internet TV channel Canal 13, on a suspended three-year sentence. The prisoner of conscience had been detained since 2 May 2017 on fabricated charges and in inhumane conditions.

Azeri activist Ulvi Hasanli has been conscripted for military service, despite being in ill-health, and sent to the zone of the unresolved conflict around Nagorno-Karabakh. Following a medical examination in September 2017, he was exempted from military service until 2019 on grounds of ill-health;...