On 5 May 2025, a side event titled “How the Absence of Human Rights Affects the Judiciary in Azerbaijan” was held as part of the OSCE Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting in Vienna. Organized by the International Bar Association and the International and Comparative Law Center – Armenia, with support from the Armenian Legal Center for Human Rights and Justice, the event also featured contributions from the “Union of Artsakh” NGO and the “Protection of Rights Without Borders” NGO.
The event convened prominent international legal experts to examine the systematic erosion of human rights in Azerbaijan and its far-reaching consequences for the judiciary and the rule of law. The discussion drew critical attention to the silencing of legal professionals, the political instrumentalization of judicial institutions, and the ongoing persecution of ethnic Armenian detainees.
Ms. Aine MacDonald of the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute opened the panel with a compelling presentation on the increasingly repressive climate faced by legal professionals in Azerbaijan. She provided an overview of the current state of the legal profession and the Bar Association, stressing its troubling role in undermining human rights advocacy. Ms. MacDonald detailed the widespread harassment of independent lawyers through suspensions, disbarments, and criminal prosecutions — actions that have created a climate of fear and severely curtailed access to justice.
She underscored the lack of judicial independence, noting that interference from the executive branch has rendered the judiciary incapable of fulfilling its constitutional responsibilities. The targeting of lawyers who take on politically sensitive or human rights-related cases, often with the cooperation of the Bar, has compounded the crisis. Most concerning, she noted, is the situation facing ethnic Armenians tried on fabricated, politically motivated charges. Due to widespread intimidation and fear, they are systematically denied effective legal representation — a critical violation of the right to a fair trial.
Mr. Philippe Kalfayan of the International and Comparative Law Center – Armenia expanded on the institutionalized persecution of human rights defenders in Azerbaijan. Citing multiple rulings from the European Court of Human Rights, he illustrated how politically motivated prosecutions have become the norm. Drawing from his direct experience representing Armenians in Baku, Mr. Kalfayan emphasized the impossibility of securing fair legal representation for Armenian detainees. Azerbaijani lawyers, he revealed, privately acknowledge that verdicts are often preordained. He called on OSCE participating States to invoke the Moscow Mechanism to launch a formal investigation into Azerbaijan’s human rights abuses, with special focus on the treatment of ethnic Armenian detainees.
Ms. Siranush Sahakyan, Head of the International and Comparative Law Center – Armenia, addressed the structural denial of justice within Azerbaijan’s judicial system. Based on her legal work on behalf of Armenian prisoners of war before the European Court of Human Rights and UN bodies, she described repeated denials of access to her clients and other serious obstructions to legal defense preparation. She highlighted the institutionalization of Armenophobia, revealing that detainees have often been mistreated in the presence — and at times with the complicity — of their state-appointed attorneys. Ms. Sahakyan warned of Azerbaijan’s ongoing violations of international humanitarian law, particularly the misclassification of acts protected under combatant immunity as terrorism. She also raised concerns about the impartiality of judges involved in such trials, many of whom have previously issued politically motivated rulings.
Moderating the panel, Ms. Anna Melikian contextualized these developments within Azerbaijan’s broader authoritarian trajectory. Citing findings from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Freedom House, and the UN Committee Against Torture, she emphasized the intensification of state repression since November 2024. This includes expanded surveillance, arrests of antiwar activists and social media users, and the use of transnational repression tactics to silence dissent beyond Azerbaijan’s borders.
This side event served as a stark indictment of the collapse of judicial independence in Azerbaijan and its severe implications for both domestic rights defenders and ethnic minority detainees. Speakers collectively urged the international community to take urgent, coordinated action to uphold justice, demand accountability, and protect fundamental human dignity.