YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 17, ARMENPRESS. The Republic of Armenia instituted proceedings against the Republic of Azerbaijan at the International Court of Justice for violations of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), stating that “for decades, Azerbaijan has subjected Armenians to racial discrimination” and that, “as result of this State-sponsored policy of Armenian hatred, Armenians have been subjected to systemic discrimination, mass killings, torture and other abuse”.
The United Nations’ Hague-based top court said in a statement that Armenia has stated in the proceedings that these violations are directed at individuals of Armenian ethnic or national origin regardless of their actual nationality, and that these practices once again came to the fore in September 2020 when Azerbaijan attacked Armenia and Artsakh, and that during that armed conflict, Azerbaijan committed grave violations of the CERD.
Armenia accuses Azerbaijan in continuing to engage in the murder, torture and other abuse of Armenian POWs, hostages and other detained persons even after the ceasefire took effect.
“Armenia further contends that “all good-faith efforts by Armenia to put an end to Azerbaijan’s violations of the CERD through other means [have] failed,” the tribunal said in the press release.
In addition, Armenia has called on the tribunal to take provisional measures “as a matter of extreme urgency” in order to “protect and preserve Armenia’s rights and the rights of Armenians from further harm, and to prevent the aggravation or extension of this dispute”.
Pursuant to Article 74 of the Rules of Court, “[a] request for the indication of provisional measures shall have priority over all other cases”.
Editing by Stepan Kocharyan