Governments involved in facilitating talks between Azerbaijan and Armenia should secure concrete commitments from the Azerbaijani president on respecting, protecting, and implementing the right to return of ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh, Human Rights Watch said in a statement published on the organization’s webpage on 5 October.
Azerbaijan’s plan for reintegration of the region and its residents should set out how, in both the short and long-term, it will respect human rights, in particular those of ethnic minorities; and it should welcome an independent mission for sustained international monitoring of these commitments, the report says.
Human Rights Watch also notes that Azerbaijan’s partners should insist on an international monitoring mission to report publicly on conditions facing ethnic Armenians who have remained in Nagorno-Karabakh, and to identify human rights violations, particularly those that would undermine ethnic Armenians’ right to return to their homes.
“Azerbaijan’s partners should send an unambiguous message to the country’s leadership that when it comes to the right to return, they will not accept hollow rhetoric and half measures. The fear and lack of trust on all sides make a sustained international presence essential for the right to return to be meaningful, not theoretical,” the statement quotes HRW Europe and Central Asia director Hugh Williamson as saying.
Human Rights Watch statement says that they had interviewed, on the Armenian border, 14 individuals and 7 families who fled Nagorno-Karabakh; as well as humanitarian workers, medical personnel, Armenian officials and a representative of the former Nagorno-Karabakh de facto authorities.
“Most people interviewed said they would consider returning to Nagorno-Karabakh to collect their belongings if they could do so under international protection,” the statement mentions.
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