The US State Department's 2022 report on human rights practices by Azerbaijan presents all types of human rights violations, and points to the war crimes committed by Azerbaijani servicemen.

“During the year, there were incidents of violence between Armenia and Azerbaijan which resulted in casualties and detentions. There were reports that Azerbaijani forces engaged in unlawful killings, and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment of Armenian forces in September. Complaints submitted by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the European Court of Human Rights accusing each other of committing atrocities during the fighting in 2020 and 2016 awaited the court’s ruling. Armenia submitted new complaints regarding the September fighting,” the report noted.

“The [Azerbaijani] government did not prosecute or punish the majority of officials who were reported to have committed human rights abuses and acts of corruption; impunity remained a problem. There was no reported progress on government investigations of alleged abuses committed by Azerbaijani armed forces or individuals during the 2020 and 2022 hostilities,” the report added.

The government continued to prosecute detained Armenian civilians and servicemen in public trials that lacked elements of due process such as the right to choose one’s own legal counsel. During the year, the government released 13 detained Armenian soldiers. According to the Armenian government, Azerbaijan held 33 Armenian detainees at year’s end.

“The government continued to prosecute detained Armenian civilians and servicemen in public trials that lacked elements of due process such as the right to choose one’s own legal counsel,” the report added.

“Following intensive fighting between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces in mid-September, there were credible reports of unlawful killings involving summary executions of Armenian soldiers in Azerbaijani custody (also see the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for Armenia),” the report added.

“In response to the release of a video on October 2 of such executions, the Azerbaijani government announced the military prosecutor’s office had launched an investigation. Later that month, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that criminal cases were opened concerning perpetrators of crimes portrayed in the video with no further details,” the report noted.

“Armenian authorities reported three Armenian civilians were killed and seven were wounded during the September fighting. Azerbaijani authorities reported three civilians were wounded,” the report said.

“On May 17, Amnesty International issued two reports on the experiences of older persons in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. In releasing the reports, Amnesty stated the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan regarding Nagorno-Karabakh – with intensive fighting from 1988 to 1994, and another escalation in late 2020 – “saw older people unlawfully killed, tortured, and forcibly displaced.” In one of the two reports, Last to Flee: Older People’s Experience of War Crimes and Displacement in the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict, Amnesty stated that of 30 cases it reviewed from 2020, it verified many cases of unlawful killings of older persons by Azerbaijani forces in towns previously controlled by Armenian forces. Amnesty stated, “Many of the killings were extrajudicial executions, at times via beheading or shooting at pointblank range, and sometimes appear to have involved torture or other ill-treatment prior to the murder, as well as the mutilation of bodies” (see also the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for Armenia),” the report added.

“On September 22, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination issued a report expressing concern regarding “allegations of severe and grave human rights violations committed during the 2020 hostilities and beyond by Azerbaijani military forces against prisoners of war and other protected persons of Armenian ethnic or national origin – including extrajudicial killings, torture and other ill-treatment and arbitrary detention, as well as the destruction of houses, schools and other civilian facilities,”’ the report added.

“Videos were released shortly after the end of the intensive fighting in September that appeared to depict the bodies of three Armenian women service members who were victims of degrading and inhuman treatment. One of these videos depicted a nude and mutilated woman’s body placed above other corpses. While kicking her body, the Azerbaijani-speaking camera operator repeatedly directed abusive language towards the victim. A message had been written on her chest and stomach that read “YAŞMA” (a code name for Azerbaijani special forces),” the report noted.

“From December 12 through the end of the year, Azerbaijani protesters widely believed to be backed by the country’s authorities, blocked the sole road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia, via the Lachin corridor, leaving it inaccessible to most civilian and commercial traffic. Human Rights Watch called on those in control of the road and the area around it, including the country’s authorities, to ensure that freedom of movement was not stopped,” the report stated.

“Following the border closure between Azerbaijan and Armenia in 1991, inflammatory rhetoric and hate speech became increasingly prevalent, particularly as an entire generation grew up without interactions with the other side. Civil society activists have stated an entire generation had grown up listening to hate speech against Armenians. Individuals with Armenian-sounding names were subjected to additional screening at border crossings and were occasionally denied entrance to the country,” the report noted.

“On November 14, BBC Azerbaijan reported on Azerbaijan’s “patriotic curriculum,” citing experts expressing concern that it could instill hatred among young students. Among objectionable material cited in the article was an Azerbaijani language textbook for 6th graders that included a short story called Little Hostages with the following: “Rabid Armenians used rusty pliers to pull out the tongues of those who did want to read, stripped them and mocked them,”’ the report added.

“In a January 30 interview with Azerbaijan’s State News Agency AZERTAC, President Aliyev stated in part, “We have not only liberated our lands, we have cleansed the region, the South Caucasus, of these savage forces,”’ noted the US State Department's 2022 report on human rights practices by Azerbaijan.