On February 18, 2025, former Artsakh State Minister Ruben Vardanyan began a hunger strike to protest his continued imprisonment in Baku. Azerbaijan holds Vardanyan, a philanthropist, billionaire, and the number two official in the Nagorno-Karabakh government, on trumped-up charges of terrorism and war crimes. His hunger strike seeks to protest his unlawful detention. His life is in danger.
The ICRC’s deference to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev is just the latest dereliction of its duties that now threatens to make the organization irrelevant.
On March 3, protestors outside the Yerevan office of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), demanded that the ICRC president visit Vardanyan to assess his condition and ensure proper monitoring of his health. However, the Azerbaijani regime told the ICRC on March 5 that Baku intends instead to end the ICRC’s mission to Azerbaijan that has operated in the country since 1992. The ICRC is the only organization with access to the detained Armenians. If the ICRC leaves, it would allow the Azerbaijani government, one of the world’s most authoritarian regimes, to dictate how the ICRC upholds its mandate to protect and aid victims of armed conflict. The ICRC’s deference to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev is just the latest dereliction of its duties that now threatens to make the organization irrelevant.
The ICRC derives its authority from international humanitarian law, specifically Article 126 of Geneva Convention III and Article 143 of Geneva Convention IV, which outline the right and responsibility of the ICRC to visit POWs, protected civilians, and detainees without restriction. Azerbaijan is a signatory of the four Geneva Conventions, having ratified them in 1993, and as such is aware of the ICRC’s right to function within its territory.
Yet, the ICRC’s willing abrogation of its responsibilities towards those it is obligated to help presents a worrying trend for the organization. The ICRC’s abandonment of the Armenian hostages in Baku parallels the neglect and desertion of the 251 Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, 2023, some of whom are still held captive in Gaza.
In violation of its mission, and while claiming lack of access during the more than 520 days of the conflict, the ICRC has not visited or provided medical assistance to a single Israeli hostage, many of whom Hamas murdered in captivity. The ICRC’s casual acceptance of terms set by Hamas, a recognized terrorist organization, defies both logic and principle, though it is not surprising because it never publicly condemned Hamas.
The ICRC has visited the 23 Armenian prisoners in Baku—at least the ones that the Azerbaijani government has acknowledged—many times since September 2023 and as recently as February 2025. The ICRC, however, has made no effort to visit the dozens of other hostages that Yerevan has identified but Azerbaijan denies holding. However, with its previous history of prison visitation, it is surprising, then, that the ICRC appears willing to so easily acquiesce to Baku’s shutdown order.
The ICRC’s willing abrogation of its responsibilities towards those it is obligated to help presents a worrying trend for the organization.
The ICRC was not always so weak. In 2015, the ICRC demanded access—“immediate and unimpeded passage of urgent humanitarian aid”—to a camp of Palestinian refugees the Islamic State held in Syria. Although it had not been able to access the camp since 2014, the ICRC never gave up its demands. During the 2017 conflict in South Sudan, the ICRC demanded access to the wounded to provide medical assistance and evacuate severe cases, with the ICRC’s head of delegation Francois Stamm reminding the parties involved about their obligations under international humanitarian law.
Throughout the years-long Russian offensive in Ukraine, the ICRC has demanded access to Ukrainian POWs and gotten it, even if not consistently and frequently, and in July 2024, the ICRC demanded that the Sudanese government in Khartoum allow it access to those impacted by the conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces—millions of people who lack food, water, and health care.
The ICRC knows how to demand the right to do its work, but the precedent of neglect of Israeli hostages and acquiescence to Hamas has become the new rule, rather than the exception. The ICRC should reject Azerbaijan’s threat to close down its delegation and demand access to all Armenian prisoners as it has done before. The alternative is to invite and confirm the derision of dictators who increasingly see the ICRC as irrelevant on the international stage.
