Azerbaijan

Current situation

Azerbaijan undertook on accession to the Council of Europe in 2001 that it would adopt a law on alternative service in compliance with European standards by January 2003. It has still not done so, despite the findings of the European Court on Human Rights in the cases of Mushfig Mammadov and οthers v. Azerbaijan and Mehdiyev and Abilov v. Azerbaijan. It should be noted in particular that in Para. 97 of the Mammedov judgement the ECtHR found that the necessity to defend territorial integrity is not a sufficient reason for the failure to provide an alternative civilian service.

Recent developments

The conflict over the status of the Armenian-majority enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh which had fluctuated between open warfare and a tense stand-off ever since Nagorno-Karabakh, backed only by Armenia, had in 1988 declared independence, was apparently brought to an end in September 2023 when in a rapid military campaign Azerbaijan retook control of the entire enclave, seemingly without engaging with the Armenian armed forces as such. Most members of the Armenian-majority population fled to Armenia proper; negotiations regarding safe return and restitution of property are ongoing. Tensions with Armenia remain high, but a resumption of armed conflict does not appear imminent.

In its latest report on Azerbaijan, adopted on 29 March 2023 and made public on 21 June,^[1] the Council of Europe's European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) noted its continuing concern over the situation of conscientious objectors, particularly over those who had been jailed. It said the regime had taken "no further steps" since ECRI raised the issue in its 2019 report.

ECRI reminded Azerbaijan of the Mammadov judgement, noting that its implementation was still pending. It added: "ECRI strongly encourages the authorities to consider the observations made by the Court under Article 46 of the [European] Convention [on Human Rights], which called for legislative action on civilian service as an alternative to military service in Azerbaijan."

In its response to ECRI on the initial draft of the report, Azerbaijan noted: "The working group has been established in the Milli Majlis for the purpose of drafting the law ‘On Alternative Service'." This working group was also referred to in the Action Plan presented to Council of Ministers (see CoE section).

On 8th June 2023, the Supreme Court rejected the final appeal of Jehovah’s Witness Seymur Mammedov against his conviction for refusing compulsory military service on grounds of conscience.

Mammedov had been the most recent conscientious objector to be sentenced to imprisonment in Azerbaijan. On 22nd September 2022, thus after both the Mushfiq (no relation) Mammedov and Mehdiyev and Abilov judgements of the European Court of Human Rights, he was sentenced by Goranboy District Court to nine months’ imprisonment under Article 321.1 of the Criminal Code for evading military service, despite having made clear his readiness to perform a civilian alternative service. The conviction was upheld on an appeal heard by Ganca Appeal Court on 12th December 2022, but the sentence was commuted to a suspended sentence of twelve months, to take effect from that date and he was released after nearly twelve weeks of imprisonment, during which he had not had been allowed access to a Bible or to receive letters. He was fitted with an electronic tag for the duration of the suspended sentence, and will continue to have a criminal record on its completion. It is understood that he too is now considering an application to the European Court of Human Rights.^[2]

It might be noted that during 2022 another Jehovah’s Witness, Royal Karimov, had been forcibly conscripted two days after his eighteenth birthday, despite expressing his conscientious objection and willingness to undertake alternative civilian service, and had been kept in his military unit for more than three months before being released having been found to be medically unfit.