Azerbaijan | May 14, 2024
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On 1 May 2024 the US Commission on International Religious Freedom released its annual report on freedom of religion (USCIRF, 1 May 2024) and recommended that Azerbaijan be listed among the State Department's ‘Countries of Particular Concern’ (CPC) that have committed the most egregious violations of religious freedom.
As reported by International Christian Concern on 3 May 2024, in a public presentation Commissioner Stephen Schneck said that the USCIRF had been monitoring conditions in Azerbaijan for a long time but had “documented a significant and alarming increase in the number of prisoners arrested on the basis of religion or belief" in 2023. He stated: "In addition, authorities are regularly accused of torturing or threatening sexual violence to elicit false confessions from detainees, with those perpetrating such violence facing no accountability."
World Watch Research analyst Rolf Zeegers points out: “The USCIRF is stressing that the situation for Christians in Azerbaijan has deteriorated enough to put the country in the worst class, CPC, and not among the Special Watch List countries, which is where the US State Department currently classifies Azerbaijan. The majority of incidents recorded in Azerbaijan are related to the fact that Azerbaijan retook the Armenian-majority enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in September 2023. Almost all ethnic Armenians (up to 120,000 people, most of whom are Armenian Orthodox Christians) fled to Armenia.”
Rolf Zeegers adds: “The USCIRF also urged that Kyrgyzstan be added to the second-tier ‘Special Watch List’."
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