In September 2014, Human Rights Watch wrote to BP, urging it as a leading member of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative to address the harsh crackdown on independent groups and activists in Azerbaijan.  The government of Azerbaijan is also a member of EITI.  See below for the Human Rights Watch press release, letter, and a related Financial Times article. 

This follows a separate initiative, in which a group of civil society organizations called on BP to use its leverage in Azerbaijan as a sponsor of the 2015 European Games in Baku - BP's response to that letter is here.