GENEVA — Artsakh Union President Artak Beglaryan and International and Comparative Law Center representative Philippe Raffi Kalfayan, together with representatives of a number of other Armenian non-governmental organizations, participated in the discussions of the UN Committee against Torture in Geneva on April 22-23. The Committee was examining the periodic report of Azerbaijan. They also held a number of meetings with various UN mechanisms.
In March, the International and Comparative Law Center NGO, Union for the Protection of the Interests and Rights of the Artsakh People NGO, Rights and Justice Center Tatoyan Foundation and “Arbane” Foundation published and submitted a joint report to the UN Committee Against Torture, titled “Violations of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment and Punishment by Azerbaijan in the Context of Racial/Ethnic Discrimination towards Armenians.”
The speakers delivered statements at the Committee Against Torture’s briefing for non-governmental organizations, presenting first the cases of Azerbaijani torture against Armenians based on ethnic hatred back in April 2016. They emphasized that the impunity of those Azerbaijani crimes led to the 2020-2023’s sharp increase in torture and assimilated crimes, as a result of which the whole people of Artsakh were subjected to a ten-month siege and then forced displacement.
Kalfayan and Beglaryan stressed the evidence for the torture of ethnic Armenians captives in Azerbaijani detention facilities. They referred to the information shared over Azerbaijani social networks as well as to the testimonies of repatriated Armenian prisoners. In that context, they highlighted the need for active steps by the international community to protect and release Armenians still held as hostages in Azerbaijani prisons.
Taking part as observers in the discussion between the members of the Committee against Torture and the delegation of Azerbaijan, they witnessed the insistence of the Committee to obtain clear responses of Azerbaijani delegation to submitted allegations.
Todd Buchwald, Committee Expert and Country Co-Rapporteur, said “there were many reports of abuses against Armenian prisoners of war. One horrifying video showed an Azerbaijani soldier decapitating a struggling Armenian man, with the assembled crowd clapping and cheering. What steps had been taken to investigate these and other cases of ethnic hatred and prosecute any persons responsible?”
