By Mark Dovich
CivilNet will be on the ground in The Hague this week to cover the proceedings. You can follow for updates as we receive them.
Public hearings in Armenia’s case against Azerbaijan at the United Nations’ top court alleging violations of a racial discrimination treaty began this week, marking the first time a suit involving either country has been brought before the International Court of Justice.
Speaking today before the court in The Hague, Armenia’s representative accused Azerbaijan of promoting hatred of Armenians at the official level, a policy he said reached a climax in Azerbaijan’s military takeover of Nagorno-Karabakh last year.
“Azerbaijan has not done anything to ensure that those who wish to return to their homeland safely after these events are able to do so,” added Yeghishe Kirakosyan, who referred to the mass exodus of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh as an act of “ethnic cleansing.”
For his part, on the first day of proceedings yesterday, Azerbaijan’s representative urged judges to dismiss the case, arguing most of the issues Armenia had raised were not within the court’s jurisdiction.
Armenia is “using the effect of these proceedings to wage a public media campaign against Azerbaijan,” charged Elnur Mammadov, who also serves as Azerbaijan’s deputy foreign minister.
The ICJ, sometimes called the World Court, is the UN’s main judicial body and settles disputes between countries. Since its creation after World War II, the court has heard fewer than 200 cases.
It is separate from the International Criminal Court, which Armenia joined earlier this year in defiance of repeated and unusually strong warnings from Russia about the consequences of doing so.
What’s the background?
Armenia filed a case against Azerbaijan at the ICJ in September 2021, arguing Azerbaijan’s “state-sponsored policy of Armenian hatred” has led to “systemic discrimination, mass killings, torture, and other abuse.”
Days later, Azerbaijan filed a countersuit making similar allegations against Armenia. Public hearings in that case are scheduled for next week.
The treaty at the heart of both proceedings is a decades-old UN convention committing signatories to ban racial discrimination and criminalize hate speech. It is one of the few treaties both Armenia and Azerbaijan have signed on to.
What’s happened since?
While the ICJ has not yet delivered any verdicts, it has issued a number of interim orders, known as provisional measures.
In twin rulings in December 2021, the court ordered both Armenia and Azerbaijan to uphold their obligations to prevent racial discrimination while the cases proceed. In addition, the majority of judges called on Azerbaijan to ensure the safety of the Armenians in its custody and prevent the desecration of Armenian cultural heritage sites under its control.
Perhaps most notably, the court also demanded Azerbaijan in February 2023 end a near-total blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh that had already stretched into its third month at the time. A few months later, the former chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court said he had a “reasonable basis to believe” the blockade constituted an act of genocide.
Though the ICJ’s rulings are legally binding, the court has no enforcement powers.
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