U.S. Announces Naval Operation in the Red Sea as Iran-Backed Houthi Rebels Disrupt Global Trade The Maine Wire
Day: December 19, 2023
In a new paper former Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Luis Moreno Ocampo analyzes the ethnic cleansing against a group of Armenians living for centuries in Nagorno Karabakh constituting genocide and deportation as a crime against humanity,
“There is a reasonable basis to believe that Azerbaijan’s blockade of the Lachin Corridor that started in December 2022 and Azerbaijan’s military attack on September 19, 2023, constitute genocide under Article II c) and b) of the Genocide Convention, as well as Article 6 c) and b) of the Rome Statute and the crime against humanity of deportation under Article 7 d) of the Rome Statute,” Ocampo says.
In a few days, more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians were forcibly deported from Nagorno-Karabakh, leaving their homes and belongings. On October 30, 2023, Juan Mendez, the first UN Special Adviser on the prevention of genocide, published a report concluding that: “The decision to leave – caused by the attack but also by the nine months of deprivation of food and medicine – exposed the serious mental harm produced in all ethnic Armenians by the official policy and practice of Azerbaijan, which fits the definition of the genocidal act contemplated in Article 2 (b) of the Convention: causing serious bodily or mental harm in members of the group.”
The International Court of Justice confirmed Prof Mendez’s factual analysis and the violation of the rights of the ethnic group protected. On November 17, the International Court of Justice analyzed that “…more than 100,000 persons of Armenian national or ethnic origin have found themselves compelled to leave their place of residence and reach the Armenian border since the operation commenced by Azerbaijan in Nagorno Karabakh on 19 September 2023.”
“What’s the difference between crimes against humanity and genocide?” Philippe Sands answered the question, explaining that Hersch Lauterpacht developed the concept of crime against humanity in the Western tradition to protect individuals from massive attacks. Instead, Raphael Lemkin created the crime of genocide to protect national, ethnic, racial, or religious groups,” the report reads.
It includes testimony of Artak Beglaryan, former Human Rights Defender and State Minister of Artsakh, who details his experience as evidence of the serious mental harm suffered by the entire ethnic group as established by the Genocide Convention Article II b).
As a Nagorno-Karabakh leader, Artak Beglaryan was hunted by Azerbaijan forces before and after the September 19 attack. Still, unlike most of the others, he was able to escape in extremely difficult circumstances despite his visual impairment.
As mentioned, more than twenty victims of genocide, including three former Artsakh presidents and five other community leaders, were incarcerated by Azerbaijan. Their captivity is part of the genocide and a message to their community: if you come back to Nagorno-Karabakh, you will be starved, incarcerated, or killed.
“A recognition that genocide was committed will trigger the state parties’ obligations to prevent and punish and would help to protect the rights of the victims, particularly the Armenian prisoners taken as hostages,” Luis Moreno Ocampo.
The full report is available here.
Luis Moreno Ocampo releases second report on Nagorno Karabakh genocide – Public Radio of Armenia Public Radio of Armenia
Categories
NPR News: 12-19-2023 6PM EST
kyiv, ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that a recent slowdown in prisoner swaps with Moscow was due to unspecified “reasons” on the Russian side, but expressed hope that the swaps could soon resume.
The two sides held a number of prisoner swaps from the early months of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and into this year. But their intensity slowed in 2023, and the last one took place in early August.
“It has indeed slowed down due to the Russian Federation’s own reasons, but these are very specific reasons. The track will open,” Zelenskyy told a news conference in Kyiv, without citing Russia’s reasons.
He added that Ukraine was currently working on the exchange of “a good enough number of our boys” and expressed hope the swap would be successful.
Last month, Ukrainian Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Lubinets said Russian prisoners in Ukraine had expressed a wish to be exchanged but Moscow was not interested in taking them back. Moscow did not comment on that assertion.
In November, the Ukrainian government said it had recorded 3,574 Ukrainian military and 763 civilians taken into Russian or Moscow-backed separatists’ captivity since 2014.
That figure included those who have already returned to Ukraine, it said, but likely did not reflect all the current prisoners.
Kyiv has brought back 2,598 people from Russian captivity during 48 swaps, according to the Ukrainian military.
kyiv, ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that a recent slowdown in prisoner swaps with Moscow was due to unspecified “reasons” on the Russian side, but expressed hope that the swaps could soon resume.
The two sides held a number of prisoner swaps from the early months of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and into this year. But their intensity slowed in 2023, and the last one took place in early August.
“It has indeed slowed down due to the Russian Federation’s own reasons, but these are very specific reasons. The track will open,” Zelenskyy told a news conference in Kyiv, without citing Russia’s reasons.
He added that Ukraine was currently working on the exchange of “a good enough number of our boys” and expressed hope the swap would be successful.
Last month, Ukrainian Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Lubinets said Russian prisoners in Ukraine had expressed a wish to be exchanged but Moscow was not interested in taking them back. Moscow did not comment on that assertion.
In November, the Ukrainian government said it had recorded 3,574 Ukrainian military and 763 civilians taken into Russian or Moscow-backed separatists’ captivity since 2014.
That figure included those who have already returned to Ukraine, it said, but likely did not reflect all the current prisoners.
Kyiv has brought back 2,598 people from Russian captivity during 48 swaps, according to the Ukrainian military.