I 
114TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 4264 
To promote United States national security and foreign policy objectives 
through consolidation and strengthening of the rule of law and respect 
for human rights in the Republic of Azerbaijan. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
DECEMBER 16, 2015 
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey introduced the following bill; which was referred 
to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committees 
on the Judiciary and Financial Services, for a period to be subsequently 
determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provi-
sions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To promote United States national security and foreign pol-
icy objectives through consolidation and strengthening 
of the rule of law and respect for human rights in 
the Republic of Azerbaijan. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Azerbaijan Democracy 
Act of 2015’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress makes the following findings: 
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(1) The United States and the Republic of 
Azerbaijan have many areas of mutual interest and 
cooperation, but the United States ability to more 
fully cooperate with Azerbaijan has been severely 
hindered by the Government of Azerbaijan’s gross 
violations of human rights and fundamental free-
doms, including violations of basic principles of 
democratic governance, standards to which Azer-
baijan has committed itself to adhere as a partici-
pating State in the Organization for Security and 
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and other multilat-
eral institutions. 
(2) On December 5, 2014, the Government of 
Azerbaijan arrested investigative reporter Khadija 
Ismayilova, who also was a radio host on Radio 
Free/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). The charge against 
her was ‘‘incitement to suicide’’, and she was held 
in pretrial detention and not allowed out on bail. On 
December 26, 2014, the Government of Azerbaijan 
raided the Baku Office of RFE/RL and closed its 
operations. Over the course of a year in pretrial de-
tention, the original charges against Ms. Ismayilova 
were dropped after government-called witnesses re-
fused to cooperate with the case. However, Ms. 
Ismayilova remained in detention and the Govern-
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ment of Azerbaijan subsequently charged her with 
embezzlement, illegal entrepreneurship, tax evasion, 
and abuse of power. She was convicted and is now 
serving a 71⁄2-year sentence in prison. The RFE/RL 
Baku Bureau has not been allowed to reopen. 
(3) According to the United States State De-
partment report for 2014, the Government of Azer-
baijan did not respect its own laws on freedom of 
speech and press censorship. The report said, ‘‘The 
government continued to limit freedom of speech 
and media independence. Journalists faced intimida-
tion and at times were beaten and imprisoned.’’. 
(4) The Committee to Protect Journalists stat-
ed that Azerbaijan is the leading jailer of journalists 
in Europe and Central Asia, and is the fifth most 
censored country in the world. 
(5) As an OSCE participating State, the Gov-
ernment of Azerbaijan has committed itself to work 
toward a standard of free and fair elections. Since 
its independence in 1992, no election held in Azer-
baijan has met the minimum requirements as out-
lined by the OSCE. Elections for President and for 
the Parliament have shown a pattern of disregard 
for the conduct of democratic elections and have 
been marred by the arbitrary use of state power, dis-
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