Armenia-Azerbaijan Relations: HART submits evidence to House of Lords inquiry

We’ve submitted evidence to a House of Lords inquiry on Nagorno Karabakh and Armenia-Azerbaijan Relations. All of the points raised come back to one central principle: there must be no impunity for the most serious international crimes. Azerbaijan has faced no consequences for its recent actions, which include:

• Forced displacement of over 100,000 ethnic Armenians from Nagorno Karabakh.
• Use of weapons incapable of precision targeting, in contravention of international humanitarian law and Geneva conventions.
• Destruction of non-military objects, including hospitals, schools and food stocks.
• Provocative incursions into the sovereign territory of Armenia.
• The continuing unlawful imprisonment of up to 100 Armenian hostages.
• Humiliating treatment and desecration of Armenian corpses.
• A nine-month blockade of the Lachin Corridor, preventing access to fuel, food and medicine.
• Discriminatory, segregational, restrictive and exclusionary practices, including anti-Armenian rhetoric.
• Targeted erasure of significant Armenian cultural properties and centuries-old religious sites.
• Violation of the trilateral ceasefire agreement of 9 November 2020.
• Breaching the International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries.

Serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law have not been prevented, punished or adequately addressed. Failure to act gives Azerbaijan a green light to continue its violations with impunity.