Legal framework on freedom of religion and actual application
Article 18 of the Azerbaijan Constitution establishes the separation of religion and state, while Article 48 protects freedom of conscience, recognising everyone’s right to express their religious convictions and practices, provided they do not violate public order or morality. In practice, religious activity is strictly governed by the 2009 Law on Freedom of Religious Belief, which imposes strict government control over religious groups. The latter are required to register with the State Committee for Work with Religious Associations (SCWRA), which reviews all religious material imported, sold, and distributed across the country. Religious education is strictly limited and regulated, and foreign nationals are not allowed to engage in proselytising activities.
The 2009 law on religion has been amended twice in the past few years; however, instead of reducing bureaucratic barriers to religious practice, the changes instead brought stricter restrictions on worship and other religious activities.
The first amendments to the law on religion and the administrative code were prepared without outside input and were adopted quickly, entering into force on 16 June 2021. One of the new restrictions requires non-Islamic religious leaders to be pre-approved by the SCWRA. It is not yet clear whether or how this will apply to the Roman Catholic Church in Azerbaijan since relations with the authorities are regulated by a 2011 Agreement, which grants the Holy See the right to choose the leader of the Apostolic Prefecture and the clergy.
Under the new rules, religious groups must cease their activities if they do not have a government-appointed cleric. Only those groups that have a registered “religious centre” can enjoy many of the prerogatives granted by law, such as having foreign nationals as religious leaders, opening religious educational institutions, or organising visits to foreign shrines and religious sites.
While acknowledging that parents and guardians can raise their children in accordance with their religious beliefs and views, the new amendments prevent forcing “children to believe in religion. The religious upbringing of children shall not adversely affect their physical and mental health”.
Of particular concern is the amendment requiring SCWRA permission to hold mass religious events outside state-approved places of worship. This, international observers note, could be used against people who hold religious meetings in homes or other private venues, since the number of participants required for a meeting to be considered a mass event is not defined.
Subsequent amendments, giving the authorities even more control over religious activities, came into force on 11 March 2022. These include the change that, every five years, the SCWRA and not the Caucasian Muslim Board will be responsible for appointing mosque prayer leaders, as well as dismissing or reconfirming them. In addition, non-Muslim groups are no longer permitted to have a “religious centre”. It is unclear what impact this will have on the activities of these religious groups.
In April 2022, the SCWRA approved new rules for the appointment and dismissal of members of the clergy; however, these are very vague and highly discretionary. For example, in one case, a Shia imam in Neftchala, Mirseymur Aliyev, was fired for holding end-of-Ramadan prayers on 3 May rather than a day earlier, as prescribed by the authorities.
Incidents and developments
In Azerbaijan, the Catholic Church, led by the Slovak Bishop Vladimir Fekete, maintains good relations with the Azerbaijani government and other Christian groups. Together with the Caucasian Muslim Board, the Russian Orthodox Church, the Jewish communities, and the Albanian-UDI community, the Catholic çààààààààààààààChurch receives funding distributed by the government on a yearly basis granted to “traditional” religious groups.
For other groups, Christian and non-Christian alike, it is more complicated. For example, many religious communities seeking to register, especially those which cannot meet the requirement of at least 50 adult members, fear possible harassment from the police or litigation in the courts. However, over the past year, no administrative action has been taken by the government against any unregistered religious groups. At the end of 2021, the SCWRA registered 16 new religious communities, all of which were Muslim.
Independent Muslims, who tend to be seen as potential threats to state authority or national security, are subject to closer scrutiny. People associated with the Muslim Unity Movement (MUM), for example, have been targeted, with some sentenced to prison terms over the past year. One of them, Razi Humbatov, was arrested in July 2021 and sentenced to six years in prison in May 2022 after 10 months of pre-trial detention, on unfounded drug trafficking charges.
On the day of Humbatov’s trial, several MUM supporters protested outside the court in Baku. Five were detained of which three – Agaali Yahyayev, Imran Mammadli, and Elgiz Mammadov – were held for 30 days, while the other two – Suleyman Alakbarov and Mail Karimli – were released after they were beaten and insulted in police custody. MUM leader Taleh Bagirov (also known as Bagirzade), a prisoner of conscience, began a hunger strike in prison on 3 June in order to protest against police violence and blaspheming.
On 19 October 2021, six Shia clerics were detained and questioned. One of them, Imam Sardar Babayev, remains in prison. He is set to go on trial on 19 March 2023 on charges of treason and espionage in favour of Iran. Babayev, who received his religious training abroad, served a three-year prison sentence (2017–2020) for leading mosque prayers.
On 22 September 2022, a court sentenced a Jehovah's Witness, Seymur Mammadov, to nine months in prison for refusing to do his military service. This came a year after the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg issued a ruling in October 2021 ordering Azerbaijan to compensate two conscientious objectors who were also jailed for refusing to perform the same service. Another Jehovah's Witness, Royal Karimov, was forcibly handed over to the military on 25 July 2022, two days after his 18th birthday, and remains confined to a military unit in the city of Ganca. Both men said that they were willing to do an alternative civilian service.
Although conscientious objection is constitutionally guaranteed and Azerbaijan told the Council of Europe that it would introduce an alternative civilian service in January 2001, no legislation to his effect has been adopted.
In 2021 and 2022, the ECHR and the United Nations Human Rights Committee highlighted Azerbaijan's violation of religious freedom, and forced it to compensate the victims, demanding that it revise its legislation on order to ensure that such violations no longer take place.
NAGORNO-KARABAKH
Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian enclave in Azerbaijani territory, has been the scene of bloody fighting since the end of Soviet rule, and remains an unresolved dispute. Despite a ceasefire in 2020, clashes have continued, with the latest incident taking place in September 2022. The truce that followed seems to be holding, but both sides continue to accuse each other of violating agreements and human rights.
The area’s extensive cultural heritage is also a source of concern. Armenia has accused Azerbaijan of deliberately destroying, desecrating, and seizing Armenian churches, shrines and cultural artefacts. For its part, Azerbaijan has accused Armenia of the same, most notably of misappropriating Azerbaijan's historical, cultural, and religious heritage, claiming that the region’s centuries-old Armenian churches are in fact a legacy of Caucasian Albanians.
Recently, Azerbaijan has set up a new working group of historians and architectural experts to cleanse Nagorno-Karabakh of what it calls the “fictitious” Armenian heritage. This is putting at risk the restoration of the Ghazanchetsots Cathedral in the city of Shusha. Damaged during fighting in 2020, it is being rebuilt in what Azerbaijani authorities claim to be its “original” form, modifying its appearance to fit the new historical narrative. Azerbaijan’s anti-Armenian campaign has also targeted the religious rights of ethnic Armenians within Azerbaijan, denying them, for example, access to the Dadivank Monastery in May 2021.
Prospects for religious freedom
The outlook for the future of religious freedom in Azerbaijan is mixed. Historically, Azerbaijan has sought to portray itself as a country based on multiculturalism and respect for all ethnic groups and religions. Reports, however, indicate that the government of Azerbaijan – like others in the region allegedly for reasons of security – is increasingly making a distinction in treatment between registered and non-registered religious organizations. This has also been reflected in the recent amendments to the 2009 law on religion introducing greater restrictions on worship and other religious activities enhancing the government’s already strong control over the life of religious organisations, contrary to the constitutional provision separating religion and state. The prospects for religious freedom, therefore, remain negative.
Azerbaijan