Cases of Violation of Humanitarian Law

E arly in the year, world-renowned organizations Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch reported on numerous violations of humanitarian law.

The annual report of Human Rights Watch emphasizes that Azerbaijan launched a military offensive, as a result of which Armenia ceded control over several territories to Azerbaijan, without defining the political status of Nagorno-Karabakh. The report notes that both sides committed violations of international humanitarian law during the hostilities, illegally harming civilians. Referring to the violations committed by the Armenian forces, the report notes that banned cluster munitions were used in populated areas, causing dozens of civilian victims. During the fighting, Armenian forces carried out indiscriminate attacks, launching unguided artillery rockets, and firing heavy artillery shells and ballistic missiles on population centers, including in some places where there were no evident military targets, causing civilian deaths and injuries.

The report also mentions about a sharp political crisis in Armenia resulted by the war, with opposition to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan demanding snap elections.

The Azerbaijani part of the report states that the country’s forces launched large air-dropped munitions and fired rockets that lacked the capacity to be targeted with precision, into populated areas. There were attacks on dual purpose infrastructures, such as power stations, causing excessive harm to the civilian population. Besides attacking military targets, some attacks damaged schools, private residences, businesses, hospitals, as well as interrupted regular supply of services such as power, gas, and water, as a result of which a large number of people were evacuated from Nagorno-Karabakh.

The report didn’t ignore the topic of prisoners of wars either. “In a serious violation of humanitarian law, Azerbaijani soldiers subjected Armenian prisoners of war to physical abuse and acts of humiliation, which were filmed and shared widely online”, the report notes. It also emphasizes that Turkey has provided a great support to Azerbaijan during this conflict.

Amnesty International, a human rights organization, also published a report on the events in Nagorno-Karabakh and violations of humanitarian law. Its staff visited Azerbaijan and Armenia in late November, interviewed relatives of the victims, wounded civilians, witnesses, as well as local civilian and military authorities. They also talked to the representatives of NGOs and media.

According to the report, both sides carried out disproportionate and indiscriminate attacks on civilians by using banned cluster munitions. They documented 8 strikes carried out by Armenian forces on towns and villages in Azerbaijan, as a result of which a total of 72 civilians were killed. The strikes in Barda and Qarayusufli involved the use of internationally banned cluster munitions, and the deadliest strikes on Ganja involved the use of R-17 ballistic missiles, as well as unguided Smerch rockets. Based on Azerbaijani official data , the war took the lives of 94 civilians.

The organization documented 9 strikes carried out by Azerbaijan, which was aimed not only at Karabakh, but also at Armenia, which killed a total of 11 victims. Four of these strikes were in Stepanakert that killed four civilians and two soldiers, five strikes in Martuni, which killed three, two strikes in Martakert, killing three people. There was one strike in Davit Bek, in Armenia, as a result of which one civilian was killed. According to the data of the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, at least 52 Armenian civilians were killed as a result of Azerbaijani shelling.

Some of the strikes were carried out using inherently indiscriminate weapons, such as 122mm Grad rockets and internationally banned cluster munitions. The report emphasizes that Azerbaijani strikes also destroyed or damaged a large number of civilian homes and other civilian objects, including churches and markets.

Amnesty International calls not only to exclude the use of banned munitions in the future, but also to investigate what happened and punish the guilty. It also suggests the countries to join the Convention on Cluster Munitions. The organization calls on the parties to compensate the victims of the use of prohibited weapons.