USCIRF recommends Azerbaijan for Special Watch List

ArmInfo. In 2025, Azerbaijan's government committed severe violations of religious freedom. Authorities enforced the country's highly restrictive religion law, which criminalizes unregistered religious activities and grants the government full control over registered religious organizations.

The religion law furthermore mandates the official  review and approval of religious materials, restricts who can engage  in missionary activities, and requires state approval of religious  leaders, among other limitations, reads the 2026 Annual Report by the  United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). 

Historic Armenian religious sites in Nagorno-Karabakh and the  surrounding territories remain at risk following Azerbaijan's  retaking of the territories in 2020 and 2023. As of July, satellite  imagery identified eight destroyed and another 10 damaged religious  sites, including churches, cemeteries, and other artifacts.  Additionally, family members have reported that Armenian prisoners  are prevented from receiving religious items, such as the Bible;  however, the Azerbaijani government has claimed prisoners have access  to religious materials. 

In February, a USCIRF delegation traveled to Azerbaijan to survey  religious freedom conditions and meet with government officials.  While the Azerbaijani government has been willing to engage with  USCIRF, it has not made any significant progress since then to  address USCIRF's recommendations.

Given the above, the USCIRF recommendations are as follow:

Maintain Azerbaijan on the Special Watch List for engaging in or  tolerating severe violations of religious freedom pursuant to the  International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA);

Impose targeted sanctions on Azerbaijani government agencies, such as  the Ministry of Internal Affairs' Main Department for Combating  Organized Crime (also known as Bandotdel), and officials responsible  for severe violations of religious freedom by freezing those  individuals' assets and/or barring their entry into the United States  under human rights-related financial and visa authorities, citing  specific religious freedom violations;

Enter into a memorandum of understanding between the U.S. Department  of State and the Azerbaijani government to develop and implement  strategies to improve religious freedom and other human rights within  the country; and 

Allocate funds to programs that document and/or report on religious  freedom and related human rights violations in Azerbaijan, such as  Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), and  the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). 

For details follow link:  https://www.uscirf.gov/sites/default/files/2026-  03/USCIRF_2026_AR_3326_NEW.pdf?fbclid=IwY2xjawQd7sdleHRuA2FlbQIxMABic  mlkETFVblhFckJWRVBHVG9VZ09Tc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIw  MDg5MgABHinnW_9uQw_Km7CvrhVZC7W-  1VBFtKSLBtMBjuZQoBy60QIQbIbnv3GCGCI0_aem_7R0M5Q7fLq-I1GEhC2HFCw