IV 
118TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 861 
Calling on Azerbaijan to immediately comply with international commitments 
regarding the release and treatment of prisoners of war, hostages, and 
other detained persons. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
NOVEMBER 9, 2023 
Mr. SCHIFF (for himself, Mr. PALLONE, Mr. BILIRAKIS, and Mr. VALADAO) 
submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee 
on Foreign Affairs 
RESOLUTION 
Calling on Azerbaijan to immediately comply with inter-
national commitments regarding the release and treat-
ment of prisoners of war, hostages, and other detained 
persons. 
Whereas, on September 27, 2020, Azerbaijan launched a 
military assault on Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), result-
ing in thousands of deaths, the displacement of tens of 
thousands of ethnic Armenian residents, and the deten-
tion of an estimated 200 Armenian prisoners of war 
(POWs), hostages, and other detained persons by Azer-
baijan; 
Whereas, on November 9, 2020, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and 
Russia signed a tripartite cease-fire statement, in which 
all parties agreed that the ‘‘exchange of prisoners of war, 
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hostages and other detained persons and corpses of de-
ceased persons shall be carried out’’; 
Whereas the Third Geneva Convention, of which Azerbaijan 
is a signatory, and customary international law require 
the release of prisoners of war and captured civilians 
upon the cessation of hostilities; 
Whereas, despite Azerbaijan’s international legal obligations, 
more than three years after signing the November 2020 
statement, it has not released all relevant persons and in-
stead continues to detain new prisoners of war (POWs), 
hostages, and captured civilians; 
Whereas, in September 2022, Azerbaijan launched another 
unprovoked assault on sovereign Armenian territory, re-
sulting in the deaths of at least 222 soldiers according 
to the Armenian Government, as well as additional POWs 
taken hostage; 
Whereas, in one example, on May 27, 2023, an Azerbaijani 
armed group crossed into sovereign Armenian territory 
and abducted two Armenian soldiers delivering food in 
Syunik Province, who are now imprisoned by Azerbaijani 
authorities and face unsubstantiated terrorism charges; 
Whereas, for nearly 10 months starting in December 2022, 
in further Azerbaijani and Russian violation of the No-
vember 2020 tripartite ceasefire statement, international 
law, and multiple International Court of Justice orders, 
Azerbaijan illegally blockaded Artsakh and restricted the 
unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles, and cargo 
along the Lachin Corridor, the only road linking Artsakh 
and Armenia, including kidnapping or detaining ethnic 
Armenian civilians on arbitrary, unfounded charges; 
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Whereas, in one of several cases, 68-year-old Vagif 
Khachaturyan was being transported on July 29, 2023, 
under International Committee of the Red Cross protec-
tion for emergency medical treatment in Armenia when 
Azerbaijani authorities detained him at the illegally in-
stalled checkpoint on the Lachin Corridor on alleged 
charges related to the first Nagorno Karabakh War in 
the 1990s, which the Artsakh Human Rights Ombuds-
man stated was ‘‘a false and far-fetched pretext for his 
abduction’’, and on November 7 was convicted and sen-
tenced to 15 years in prison after a trial in which he was 
denied internationally recognized guarantees including 
adequate legal representation in accordance to several 
draconian Azerbaijani laws; 
Whereas after systematically, and in at least one case fatally, 
starving the 120,000 ethnic Armenians of Artsakh with 
the months-long blockade, on September 19, 2023, Azer-
baijani forces launched an unprovoked, large-scale mili-
tary attack on Artsakh that killed at least 200 and 
wounded 400, and forced nearly the entire population of 
ethnic Armenians to flee for their lives, completing Azer-
baijan’s ethnic cleansing of Artsakh; 
Whereas, in the days after the September 19, 2023, offensive 
began and the people of Artsakh attempted to flee to 
safety, Azerbaijan prevented several former Artsakh civil-
ian and military officials from leaving and detained them 
on spurious charges related to terrorism, participation in 
illegal armed groups, and illegal border crossing, includ-
ing former Artsakh presidents Arkadi Ghukasyan (1997 
to 2007), Bako Sahakyan (2007 to 2020), and Arayik 
Harutyunyan (2020 to 2023), former Artsakh Foreign 
Minister David Babayan, speaker of Artsakh’s legislature 
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Davit Ishkhanyan, former Artsakh State Minister Ruben 
Vardanyan, and former Artsakh military commanders 
Levon Mnatsakanyan and David Manukyan; 
Whereas under Article 4 of the Third Geneva Convention, Ar-
menian servicemembers, Artsakh servicemembers, and 
many others detained by Azerbaijan meet the criteria to 
be considered POWs, which include being ‘‘members of 
the Armed Forces of a Party to the conflict as well as 
militias or volunteer corps forming part of such Armed 
Forces’’, belonging to ‘‘regular Armed Forces who pro-
fess allegiance to a government or an authority not recog-
nized by the Detaining Power’’, and ‘‘persons who accom-
pany the Armed Forces without actually being members 
thereof’’, and charging such detainees as ‘‘terrorists’’ 
would constitute violations of international law by Azer-
baijan; 
Whereas at least 55 prisoners of war and hostages were still 
detained illegally by Azerbaijan as of November 2023 ac-
cording to the Armenian Government, though the true 
number is unknown and likely much higher given the 
many individuals that are still missing, the limited reli-
able information about the condition or treatment of pris-
oners of war and captured civilians in Azerbaijan, and 
the Azerbaijan’s misrepresentations of their status in an 
attempt to justify their continued captivity; 
Whereas there are serious concerns that due process rights 
of Armenian POWs, captured civilians, and political pris-
oners will be violated, as the Department of State’s 
Human Rights Report released on March 20, 2023, docu-
ments that Azerbaijan’s judiciary is corrupt, lacks inde-
pendence, and routinely fails to provide due process, not-
ing ‘‘many verdicts were legally unsupportable and large-
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ly unrelated to the evidence presented during a trial’’, 
and that in politically motivated cases, such as those in-
volving ethnic Armenians or the conflict, ‘‘criminal de-
fendants were often denied the right to a presumption of 
innocence; a fair, timely, and public trial; to communicate 
with an attorney of their choice; to have adequate time 
and facilities to prepare a defense; to confront witness 
and present one’s own witnesses and evidence; and not be 
compelled to testify or confess guilt’’, in violation of the 
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international 
human rights law; 
Whereas Azerbaijan is bound by the International Covenant 
on Civil and Political Rights and the European Conven-
tion on Human Rights, to which it is a party, as well as 
the Third Geneva Convention, to treat those in custody 
humanely in all circumstances; 
Whereas Human Rights Watch reported in March 2021 that 
Azerbaijani forces had abused ethnic Armenian prisoners 
of war and subjected them to ‘‘cruel and degrading treat-
ment and torture either when they were captured, during 
their transfer, or while in custody at various detention fa-
cilities’’, including electrical shocks, prolonged and re-
peated beatings, and prodding with sharp metal rods; 
Whereas international human rights organizations based in 
Armenia released a fact-finding report in August 2022 ti-
tled ‘‘Human Rights Violations during the 44-Day War 
in 
Artsakh’’, 
documenting 
cases 
of 
illegal, 
extrajudicial execution of Armenian POWs and others de-
tained by Azerbaijani Armed Forces; 
Whereas a December 2021 International Court of Justice rul-
ing ordered Azerbaijan to protect from violence and bod-
ily harm Armenians detained during or since the 2020 
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war and provide for their security and equality before the 
law; 
Whereas a September 2022 United Nations Committee on 
the Elimination of Racial Discrimination report high-
lighted deep concern over ‘‘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’’; 
Whereas a video authenticated by Human Rights Watch 
showed the extrajudicial execution of at least seven Ar-
menian POWs, apparently by Azerbaijani forces in Sep-
tember 2022, ‘‘a war crime for which there needs to be 
accountability’’; 
Whereas there is significant concern that female detainees in 
particular could be subject to sexual assaults and other 
mistreatment, with video footage from September 2022 
showing one horrific example of a female Armenian sol-
dier who was raped, dismembered, stripped, and muti-
lated by Azerbaijani troops; 
Whereas the Department of State’s Human Rights Reports 
released in March 2023 documented ‘‘credible reports of 
unlawful killings involving summary executions of Arme-
nian soldiers in Azerbaijani custody’’ and concerns re-
garding lack of due process in Azerbaijani trials of Arme-
nian civilians and servicemen; 
Whereas Armenia has fulfilled its obligations under the No-
vember 9 statement and international law by returning 
Azerbaijani prisoners of war; 
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Whereas 
Azerbaijan’s 
continued 
detainment, 
torture, 
extrajudicial execution, and other serious human rights 
violations against prisoners of war and captured civilians 
calls into serious question their commitment to human 
rights and negotiating an equitable, lasting peace settle-
ment; 
Whereas the United States, along with France and Russia, 
has been a co-chair of the Organization for Security and 
Co-operation in Europe Minsk Group which was created 
to seek a durable and peaceful solution to the conflict; 
and 
Whereas in the context of recent peace talks involving Arme-
nia, Azerbaijan, the United States, the European Union, 
and Russia, there have been calls for the release of pris-
oners of war as soon as possible, and a decision by Azer-
baijan to release all remaining prisoners of war in its cus-
tody could represent an important confidence-building 
measure: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) calls upon Azerbaijan to immediately return 
all Armenian prisoners of war, hostages, and other 
detained persons, provide information on the where-
abouts of servicemen and civilians who were last 
seen in Azerbaijani custody but whose status is un-
known, and allow independent monitoring and public 
reporting on the current health and wellbeing of 
those detained, and when applicable, details on their 
cause of death and the precise location of their re-
mains; 
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(2) calls on the President to impose sanctions 
under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Account-
ability Act on Azerbaijani Government officials re-
sponsible for the illegal detention, torture, and 
extrajudicial killing of Armenian prisoners of war, 
civilian detainees, hostages, political prisoners, and 
other detained persons, and to urge credible inves-
tigations and prosecutions of the perpetrators in 
these cases; 
(3) calls on the President to immediately sus-
pend any new, current, or pending military or secu-
rity assistance from the United States to Azerbaijan, 
and to fully enforce section 907 of the FREEDOM 
Support Act, in light of Azerbaijan’s violation of 
internationally recognized human rights, including 
under the Third Geneva Convention; 
(4) urges the Secretary of State to engage at all 
levels with Azerbaijani authorities, including through 
bilateral talks and cooperation with the Organization 
for Security and Co-operation in Europe Minsk 
Group or other partners, to make clear the impor-
tance of adhering to their obligations under inter-
national law and commitments made under the No-
vember 9 statement, to immediately release and 
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treat humanely all prisoners of war, hostages, and 
other detained persons; and 
(5) urges the Secretary of State to regularly 
provide substantive updates to the Committee on 
Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives and 
Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate re-
garding the progress and outcomes of engagement 
with Azerbaijan on the status of prisoners of war, 
hostages, and other detained persons. 
Æ 
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