UN COMMITTEE AGAINST TORTURE ISSUES FINDINGS ON AZERBAIJAN AND MISTREATMENT OF ARMENIANS

Washington, DC – The UN Committee Against Torture released in its findings today violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law related to the treatment of ethnic or national Armenians by Azerbaijan, which was deemed as “totally unacceptable,” reported the Armenian Assembly of America.

Azerbaijan came under “heavy criticism” for unlawful practices by international standards of justice in a section devoted to the ‘Conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh,’ where it emphasized its concern for the “severe and grave violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law committed by Azerbaijani military forces against prisoners of war and other protected persons of Armenian ethnic or national origin.”

In a public statement, the UN Committee noted that it was “alarmed by alleged extra-judicial killings, torture, and ill-treatment of national and ethnic Armenians during armed conflict and anti-terrorism operations, and the perceived lack of investigations and prosecutions of these allegations.”

The Committee also expressed concerns over the continued detention of 23 individuals of Armenian ethnic or national origin and called for “independent, impartial, transparent, and effective investigations into the allegations of serious violations and urged the State party to bring those responsible to justice.”

The report stressed that “international humanitarian law is applied during all international and non-international armed conflicts to which the State party is a party,” and that investigations and prosecutions include the “acts of any persons in a position of command or superior responsibility who knew or should have known that his or her subordinates had committed, or were likely to commit, extrajudicial executions, torture or ill-treatment, or other war crimes, and failed to take reasonable and necessary preventive measures.”

The UN report also methodically addressed a wide scope of violations by the government of Azerbaijan against its own population, including allegations of torture and ill-treatment, the harassment of human rights defenders and journalists, hate crimes, hate speech and discrimination, gender-based and domestic violence, corporal punishment, among other concerns.

“The Armenian Assembly welcomes the United Nations report and urges the international body to follow upon its recommendations and ensure the rights of all persons in Azerbaijan be respected, especially taking into consideration the unlawful arrest of leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh, the continued detention of wartime captives despite bilateral agreements with Armenia about their release, and the continued detention of Armenians for no reason other than their ethnic identity,” said Assembly Co-Chairs Van Krikorian and Anthony Barsamian.