
In 2025, by Human Rights Watch’s account, Azerbaijan did two things simultaneously: it signed a US-mediated peace framework with Armenia, and it removed nearly every independent observer from inside its borders. The Washington Declaration, signed in August 2025, set out a political framework for ending the conflict, establishing diplomatic relations, and granting the United States…

On 22 February 2023, the International Court of Justice issued an order for provisional measures in Application of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Armenia v. Azerbaijan), Case No. 180. The Court ordered Azerbaijan to, in the Court’s words, “take all measures at its disposal to ensure unimpeded movement…

In June 2025, seven journalists from the independent outlet Abzas Media were sentenced in Baku to prison terms of 7½ to 9 years. Their alleged crime — “illegal currency operations” — was, according to Amnesty International, a politically motivated charge used to silence the country’s last investigative reporters. This verdict, described by Reporters Without Borders…