The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) continues to visit Armenian detainees held in Azerbaijan despite the closure of its office in Baku last year, maintaining one of the few remaining humanitarian channels between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Speaking to CivilNet on Tuesday, ICRC Armenia delegation head Daphné Maret said the organization ended its physical presence in Azerbaijan in September 2025 following a decision by Azerbaijani authorities, but continues working with detainees, missing persons, and civilians affected by the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. “Maybe what is important to underline in this context is that this does not diminish in any way our commitment toward the people protected by international humanitarian law,” Maret said. The ICRC had long played a central role in humanitarian issues between Armenia and Azerbaijan, including detainee visits, family communication, missing persons cases, and the repatriation of bodies after military escalations. The closure of the Baku office raised concern in Armenia because the organization had been viewed as one of the few neutral intermediaries still operating between the two sides after Azerbaijan’s September 2023 military offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh. That operation resulted in the ethnic cleansing of more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians from the region and the detention of several former Nagorno-Karabakh leaders and civilians. At least 19 Armenian detainees are currently held in Baku. They include eight former political and military leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh captured during Azerbaijan’s September 2023 offensive. The trials of Armenian detainees in Baku have drawn strong criticism from Armenian officials, international lawyers, and human rights organizations, many of whom describe the proceedings as “sham trials” lacking due process guarantees. Read more on civilnet.am/en