BP’s urgent responsibilities in the conflict and exodus in Nagorno-Karabakh

Two experts on the human rights responsibilities of business, Phil Bloomer and Nora Mardirossian, wrote a blog this week analyzing BP’s responsibilities in the ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The blog was posted on the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC), an online resource hub for public information on companies’ human rights impacts and practices globally.

In it, Bloomer and Mardirossian explore BP’s decades-long connection to Azerbaijan and a controversial investment it made in Karabakh just after the 2020 war.

Based on their analysis, BP has a clear responsibility under international standards to take action by using its leverage with the Azerbaijani government. They note that BP did not sign a recent letter by corporate leaders, including Paul Polman and Richard Branson, to President Aliyev appealing for urgent de-escalation of tensions and a commitment to human rights. They say BP’s absence from the letter constitutes “a deafening silence from bp, given the company’s substantial leverage.”

The analysis points out that BP’s failure to take action poses reputational and potential legal challenges for the company.

The BHRRC asked BP to answer questions about what it has done to assess, prevent, and mitigate human rights risks and impacts in Nagorno-Karabakh. 

BP provided a short response, in which it fails to answer most of BHRRC’s questions. Based on BP’s response, it is unclear whether the company has taken any steps to avoid its own potential influence on the conflict or to use its leverage with the regime to end the ethnic cleansing.

Bloomer and Mardirossian end by calling on BP to urgently endorse the appeal from responsible business leaders for the Government of Azerbaijan “to meet its obligations as set out in international law, so that all people in Nagorno-Karabakh can live in peace and security, free from discrimination and the threat of inhuman and degrading treatment, and are able to move freely, including leaving and re-entering the area. Their safety, dignity and liberty must be upheld.”