Republic of Armenia commences proceedings against Azerbaijan over persecution and rights violations

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The Republic of Armenia has instituted proceedings against the Republic of Azerbaijan at the International Court of Justice, the United Nation’s top judicial organ, over alleged violations of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) by Azerbaijani authorities.

Armenia contended that “for decades, Azerbaijan has subjected Armenians to racial discrimination” and that as a result of such State-sponsored Armenian hatred, Armenians have been subjected to systemic discrimination, mass killings, torture and other abuse. Armenia also alleged that these violations were directed at individuals of Armenian ethnic or national origin regardless of their actual nationality.

Further, claimed that Azerbaijan committed grave violations of the ICERD, as Azerbaijan continued to engage in the murder, torture and other abuse of Armenian prisoners of war, hostages and other detained persons, and that Azerbaijan has continued to systematically destroy, erase and falsify Armenian cultural heritage in the region.

The Republic of Armenia has urged the court to take provisional measures at extreme urgency to protect and preserve Armenia’s rights and culture. It was mentioned that under Article 74 of the Rules of Court, “A request for the indication of provisional measures shall have priority over all other cases”.

The present dispute comes as a result of a Russian-brokered ceasefire in November 2020, following a six-week war that claimed more than 6,500 lives. The ceasefire was largely considered a victory for Azerbaijan, as it gave the formerly Armenian-occupied territory back to Azerbaijan. The region had been a territory under dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan since the early 1990s, owing to the fact that it was located within Azerbaijan but made up of a majority Armenian ethnicity population.