Упрощенная HTML-версия
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KHOJALY GENOCIDE
The full range of international legal principles
applies to the situation concerning the territories
of Azerbaijan currently under occupation by Ar-
menia, that is, the Nagorno-Karabakh region and
seven surrounding territories seized during the
armed conflict of the early 1990s. Such legal prin-
ciples include those relating to the use of force;
international humanitarian law; international hu-
man rights law and international responsibility.
There are sufficient grounds to conclude that
the government of the Republic of Armenia and
the subordinate forces for which it is liable under
international law are responsible for serious vio-
lations of international humanitarian and human
rights law amounting to crimes under internation-
al law. The violations of the rules of war by the
Armenian side include, inter alia, indiscriminate
attacks, including the killing of civilians, the tak-
ing and holding of hostages, and the mistreatment
and summary execution of prisoners of war and
hostages.
In relevant resolutions adopted in 1993 in
response to the unlawful use of force against
Azerbaijan and occupation of its territories, the
UN Security Council made specific reference to
violations of international humanitarian law, in-
cluding the displacement of a large number of
civilians in Azerbaijan, attacks on civilians and
the bombardment of inhabited areas within Azer-
baijan. In its judgment of 22 April 2010, the Eu-
ropean Court of Human Rights determined the
massacre of the Azerbaijani civilian population
of the Khojaly town to be “acts of particular grav-
ity which may amount to war crimes or crimes
against humanity”.
The official investigation conducted in Azer-
baijan found that the following elements of the
crime of genocide, as defined under international
law, particularly the Convention on the Preven-
tion and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,
are present with regard to the attacks on civilians
in Khojaly: the
actus reus
consisting of killing
and causing serious bodily or mental harm; the
existence of a protected group being targeted by
the authors of criminal conduct; and the specific
genocidal intent to annihilate, in whole or in part,
a group distinguished on racial, ethnic, national
or religious grounds. According to the findings
of the investigation, the following requirements
are met for the purpose of sustaining charges of
genocide with regard to crimes committed in
Khojaly: clear and convincing proof of intent to
destroy a group in whole or in part; the fact that
the destruction that took place in Khojaly was
“significant” enough to affect the defined group
as a whole; and the crime was committed within
a specific geographic locality.
QUALIFICATION OF THE CRIME