June 5, 2024

View PDF of document

"[EXCERPT] The Committee is deeply concerned by reports of severe and grave violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law committed by Azerbaijani military forces against prisoners of war and other protected persons of Armenian ethnic or national origin, including extrajudicial killings, torture and other ill-treatment, and the recording and dissemination of videos that appear to depict horrifying acts involving beheadings of living individuals, the desecration and mutilation of corpses and acknowledgment on camera by the perpetrators of responsibility for such abuses in a manner that strongly suggests that they did not fear being held accountable. The Committee notes the information provided by the State party regarding efforts to prosecute five cases, however, according to the information provided, none of the sentences imposed in those cases were for extrajudicial killings, torture or ill-treatment and no sentence required the imprisonment of any offender. The Committee underscores the need for independent, impartial, transparent and effective investigations into allegations of extrajudicial killings, torture and ill-treatment and the prosecution of those responsible. The Committee also expresses its deep concern regarding the State party’s conduct of what it describes as anti-terrorism operations, including its concern regarding the continued detention of what the State party describes as 23 individuals in connection with terrorism and related offences (arts. 2, 4, 11–13, 15, 16)."