A new draft resolution on Azerbaijan has been submitted to UN General Assembly's current 64th session

The 10 point draft resolution called “Observance of international humanitarian law and international human rights law in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan” has been submitted according to the 18th agenda item “The situation in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan”.

The draft resolution reaffirms, recalls and takes into consideration a number of international acts and meetings on the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, such as Hague convention, Universal declaration on human rights, Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, General Assembly resolutions 48/114 of 20 December 1993, entitled “Emergency international assistance to refugees and displaced persons in Azerbaijan”, and 60/285 of 7 September 2006 and 62/243 of 14 March 2008, both entitled “The situation in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan”, Security Council resolutions 822, 853, 874, 884; Minsk Group OSCE report and the recent statement of the Minsk Group Presidents on Nagorno-Karabakh in Canada.

The draft resolution “reaffirms the continuing applicability of all relevant norms of international humanitarian law and international human rights law to the situation concerning the conflict-affected territories in and around the Nagorno-Karabakh region” as well as “the commitment to ensure the inalienable right of the population expelled from the conflict-affected territories in and around the Nagorno-Karabakh region and their descendants to return to their homes, and stresses the necessity of creating appropriate conditions to this end”.

It determines the return of the population expelled from the conflict affected territories in and around the Nagorno-Karabakh region will create favorable conditions for taking confidence-building measures and encouraging people-to-people contacts as well as that “all measures taken to change unilaterally the physical character, demographic composition, institutional structure and status of the conflict-affected territories have no legal effect and constitute a serious obstruction to ongoing efforts towards the negotiated settlement of the conflict”.

The nations of the UN in a draft resolution stress the need to ensure the protection of cultural heritage and sacred sites in the conflict-affected territories in and around the Nagorno-Karabakh region, they underline the need to take immediate steps in establishing the fate of persons reported missing in connection with the conflict, and urges States and encourages intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations to take all necessary measures to provide appropriate assistance to this end.

The draft resolution invites “relevant special procedures of the Human Rights Council, the United Nations human rights treaty monitoring bodies and other United Nations entities, as appropriate, to address in fulfilling their respective mandates the issue of observance of international humanitarian law and international human rights law in the conflict-affected territories in and around the Nagorno-Karabakh region, and the OSCE to dispatch urgently a multinational fact-finding mission, composed of the representatives of the participating States of the Organization with the relevant expertise, to inquire into and report on the observance of international humanitarian law and international human rights law in the conflict-affected territories in and around the Nagorno-Karabakh region, paying primary attention to the implantation of settlers and to the current state of cultural heritage and sacred sites in these territories, and requests the Secretary-General to provide, if necessary, the relevant assistance to this end.

The UN requests the Secretary-General to prepare, in collaboration with United Nations entities and international and regional organizations and arrangements, as appropriate, and submit to the General Assembly at its sixty-fifth session a comprehensive report on the implementation of the present resolution.


/APA/