A bipartisan group of lawmakers, led by Congresswoman Dina Titus (D-NV), is planning to introduce the first-ever Azerbaijan Sanctions Review Act this week, according to Congresswoman Titus’s announcement and reporting by ANCA during last week’s Capitol Hill Armenian Genocide commemoration.
The draft bill would lead to the sanctioning of over 40 Azerbaijani officials who have played an active and chief role in undermining the rule of law and human rights in the country. According to Titus, the bill will also impose various sanctions on Azerbaijani officials who directed or carried out the ethnic cleansing of Artsakh.
The bill would require the Biden administration to determine within 180 days of its passage whether a list of Azerbaijani officials included in the bill qualifies for sanctions under existing U.S. legislation, including the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, as well as the State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act.
The ‘‘Azerbaijan Sanctions Review Act of 2024’’ highlights the Aliyev government’s brutal repression of domestic political opposition as a “grave concern” for the human rights of Azerbaijanis.
The bill also addresses Armenian prisoners, noting that Azerbaijan’s “continued detainment, torture, extrajudicial execution, and other serious human rights violations against prisoners of war and captured civilians call into serious question their commitment to human rights and ability to negotiate an equitable, lasting peace settlement.”
The list of Azerbaijani high-ranking officials to be sanctioned in the bill includes a cross-section of government ministers, judges, and prosecutors at all levels responsible for the ongoing political persecution of Azerbaijan’s pro-democracy activists.
