On December 18, 2020, the Armenian Bar Association submitted an alternative report to the United Nations’ Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (“CERD”) in advance of Azerbaijan’s upcoming review as a State party to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (the “Convention”).
The almost 40-page report discusses Azerbaijan’s violations of its obligations under the Convention and focuses on Azerbaijan’s policies of racial discrimination as against ethnic Armenians. Led by Armenian Bar Association members Anoush Baghdassarian and Yelena Ambartsumian, a comprehensive global team of law students and legal professionals researched and prepared the report: Mariam Ghazaryan in Armenia, Gariné Morcecian and Maral Morcecian in Argentina, and Astghik Hairapetian, Ovsanna Takvoryan, Mariam Nazaretyan, Mary Manukyan, Haig Ter-Ghevondian, and Kristine Kousherian in California.
As detailed in the report, despite several international human rights organizations, including the CERD, having expressed concern about Azerbaijan’s policies of racial discrimination as against ethnic Armenians, Azerbaijan has not only failed to end these policies and practices but rather has exacerbated them during its recent military action against the predominantly Armenian-populated Republic of Artsakh and the Republic of Armenia. The report lists and documents Azerbaijan’s hate speech and racially motivated hate crimes, which lead to the conclusion that Azerbaijan has not eliminated the problems highlighted in the CERD’s Concluding Observations of 2016 and has not implemented the CERD’s recommendations from that last review, but has instead reinforced its policies of racial hatred and discrimination against ethnic Armenians. Such policies resulted in the most profound and severe expressions of Armenophobia and anti-Armenian sentiment in Azerbaijan, during and after its military campaign in Nagorno-Karabakh, which manifested as physical harm including torture and death of ethnic Armenians, destruction and vandalism of Armenian property and cultural heritage, and the violation of Armenians’ environmental rights.
After highlighting (i) the obligations Azerbaijan has failed to implement since its last review, (ii) the inflammatory speech directed against ethnic Armenians by the Azerbaijani government and public figures, (iii) the inflammatory speech directed against Armenians in Azerbaijani public discourse and social media, (iv) the physical hate crimes against Armenians around the world, and (iv) Azerbaijan’s racial hatred and violation of the CERD and other international humanitarian treaties during Azerbaijan’s recent so-called “military solution” to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the report requests that the CERD urge Azerbaijan to end impunity for its anti-Armenian policies, investigate each instance of hate speech and hate crimes against ethnic Armenians under the control of Azerbaijan and its forces, and implement steps to curtail such anti-Armenian policies immediately.
The Armenian Bar Association is pleased to provide this report to the CERD and stresses the obligation that civic organizations in general, and legal professional groups in particular, have in addressing and stemming from hate speech and hate policies, which are often the precursor to and driver of ethnic cleansing and genocide.
Read more on: https://armenianbar.org/2020/12/22/the-armenian-bar-association-takes-action-with-the-united-nations-human-rights-treaty-bodies-starting-with-the-committee-on-the-elimination-of-racial-discrimination/