Human rights defenders called for an assessment of Azerbaijan's compliance with its obligations to the Council of Europe.

Five Azerbaijani human rights organizations in exile appealed to the Council of Europe to assess the human rights situation in the country and respond to Baku's statements about a possible exit from the organization. Human rights defenders noted that compromises made to maintain dialogue with Baku should not lead to the dilution of key standards of the Council of Europe.

As reported by "Caucasian Knot", in January 2024, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a resolution by a majority vote to limit the powers of the Azerbaijani delegation in response to human rights violations in the country and the increase in the number of political prisoners. The document also mentions human rights violations in the Lachin corridor and that PACE "condemned the military operation of the Azerbaijani army in September 2023," which led to the exodus of the Armenian population from Nagorno-Karabakh. The Azerbaijani delegation left the PACE meeting, accusing the body of double standards, and in August, dozens of its members were declared persona non grata in Azerbaijan. In 2025, Azerbaijan did not send a delegation to PACE, but at the end of September, a delegation of the Committee of the Council of Europe against Torture visited the country, having been denied access to Azerbaijan a year and a half earlier.

Five civil society organizations from Azerbaijan in exile issued a statement calling on the Council of Europe to respond "to the systematic violation by the Azerbaijani government of its membership obligations and its threats to exit the organization."

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stated that Baku is considering a complete exit from the Council of Europe due to biased treatment and the deprivation of the Azerbaijani delegation's voting rights in PACE after the restoration of the country's territorial integrity. Aliyev made this statement on July 13, 2026, in the city of Shusha during the opening ceremony of the IV Shusha Global Media Forum. According to the head of state, Azerbaijan does not recognize the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights, as it did not participate in the voting for its judges, and will return to work in the structure only after the cancellation of unjust restrictions and the restoration of the delegation's rights.

"This appeal arises from both the necessity to protect human rights in Azerbaijan and the obligation to preserve the basic values of the Council of Europe. It is appropriate to remind that the European Convention on Human Rights defines the collective protection of principles such as human rights, democracy, and the rule of law as a common responsibility of the member states of the organization," the statement, adopted by the Network of Independent Lawyers, the Caspian Center for Research and Analysis, the "Open Azerbaijan" Initiative, the Free Voice Collective, and the Institute for Democratic Initiatives, states.

The authors of the statement believe that the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights "have revealed serious structural problems in the area of politically motivated arrests, electoral rights, freedom of expression and assembly, torture and ill-treatment, as well as property rights."

"However, instead of addressing these issues, the Azerbaijani authorities have begun to implement a policy that questions the legitimacy of the institutions of the Council of Europe and presents its control mechanisms as interference in sovereignty and territorial integrity, attempting to limit their activities through illegal interference," said one of the signatories of the statement, head of the Caspian Center for Research and Analysis Elman Fatakh, to a correspondent of the "Caucasian Knot".

The intensified repression since 2022 has led to an unprecedented human rights crisis in Azerbaijan. "Opportunities for the free activity of independent civil society, media, and political opposition have been systematically destroyed. The increasingly repressive legislation, large-scale politically motivated arrests, and transnational repression extending beyond the country have become the main tools for suppressing dissent and eliminating independent public activity. Reports from independent organizations indicate that there are at least 328 political prisoners in the country. Representatives of civil society, journalists, and political activists are sentenced to harsh prison terms ranging from 10 to 15 years, and repression continues even in places of detention," the statement notes.

At the same time, cooperation between the Azerbaijani government and the Council of Europe continued. The Council of Europe office in Baku continued its activities, connections within individual convention and monitoring mechanisms were maintained, the Council of Europe's Action Plan for Azerbaijan for 2022-2026 continued to be implemented, and the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture resumed dialogue and visits to Azerbaijan.

"Emphasizing the importance of this cooperation, we believe that such contacts should not serve to legitimize the situation in Azerbaijan and remove the policy of repression and its severe consequences from the agenda of bilateral relations. Existing connections should not continue against the backdrop of the refusal to implement the decisions of the European Court, the continuous increase in the number of political prisoners, and the status quo that excludes real cooperation with PACE. In particular, the fact that the delegation of the CPT did not visit the Baku detention center during its visit to Azerbaijan in September-October 2025, where numerous cases of ill-treatment and torture of political prisoners occur, raises serious concerns regarding the significance and usefulness of these connections," said another signatory of the statement, Emin Abbasov from the Network of Independent Lawyers, to a correspondent of the "Caucasian Knot".

It should be noted that the signatories called on the institutions of the Council of Europe to adequately respond to the non-fulfillment by the Azerbaijani authorities of the decisions of the European Court and to the open challenge posed by Baku to the control mechanisms of the Council of Europe, "as such a response would create a significant precedent confirming the binding nature of the convention norms for all member states."

"We understand that a principled response may accelerate the Azerbaijani government's exit from the organization. The responsibility for this outcome will not lie with the Council of Europe, but with the Azerbaijani government," the statement from the five civil society organizations emphasizes.

The authors of the statement called on the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, based on Article 52 of the Convention, to request official clarifications from the Azerbaijani government regarding the human rights crisis and the non-fulfillment of the decisions of the European Court.

PACE, the Committee of Ministers, and the Secretary General are asked by the authors of the statement to "keep the human rights crisis in Azerbaijan on the agenda, take coordinated institutional steps to release political prisoners, document human rights violations, and ensure future accountability."

There is also a call for the member states of the Council of Europe to "take a unified and principled position in relations with Azerbaijan, protect the values and institutions of the organization from authoritarian pressure, and strengthen support for political prisoners, human rights defenders, journalists, and civil society."