Human Rights Crisis in Azerbaijan:
EU Must Stop Trading Away its Principles
For immediate release: Baku, Brussels, Geneva, 9 December 2025 — Azerbaijan’s geopolitical relevance has grown through its control of energy routes and its balancing act in the oil and gas market. At the same time, the EU shifted from a values-based partnership to a transactional approach centred on energy, trade and connectivity. Published today, the report of the Campaign to End Repression in Azerbaijan examines how the European Union deprioritised human rights in its relationship with Azerbaijan.
The April 2025 visit to Baku by Kaja Kallas, European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission, symbolised this turn toward geopolitical pragmatism. Human rights were barelymentioned during the visit, signalling that values are no longer central to the EU’s engagement with Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan built a system designed to eliminate independent voices and civic freedoms: The European Union is seeking closer relations with a country experiencing the most intense period of repression since independence. Human rights lawyer Samed Rahimli, member of the Steering Committee of the Campaign, highlights the scale of the deterioration:
“Azerbaijan suppressed independent civil society, media space and opposition politicians through restrictive legislation, criminal prosecutions, harassment and police violence against protestors. Human rights defenders, lawyers, journalists, politicians, civic activists and scholars face arbitrary detention, smear campaigns, coerced confessions, misuse of laws and solitary confinement. Independent NGOs cannot register or access funding; independent media outlets have been closed. With at least 400 political prisoners, Azerbaijan now has the highest number since joining the Council of Europe.”
Despite Azerbaijan’s clear unwillingness to engage on human rights or the rule of law, the European Union signed a strategic energy memorandum with the country. Economist and human rights defender Zohrab Ismayil, also a member of the Steering Committee, underlines how energy policy has shaped the EU’s shift:
“Since the 2022 energy memorandum, issues such as natural gas, connectivity, and the Middle Corridor have taken precedence in EU–Azerbaijan relations, overshadowing concerns about human rights and democratic standards. Although Azerbaijan provides only a small portion of the EU’s total energy imports, the political drive for diversification has increased Baku’s leverage. As a result, energy and trade cooperation has often been treated as separate from Azerbaijan’s growing authoritarianism.”
The report concludes that the founding values of the European Union are at risk and calls for a fundamental reset of EU policy towards Azerbaijan.
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