Report on Artsakh humanitarian situation and international preventive mechanisms made to UN

Professor of Human Rights Law in Residence at the American
University Washington College of Law Juan Mendez gave a report to the U.N. on
the continued blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh and the possible preventive
mechanisms, Permanent Mission of Armenia to the U.N. reports.

The discussion initiated by the Mission of Armenia to the
U.N. was attended by delegations of the U.N. Security Council Member States and
diplomats from a number of other states.

Juan Mendez highlighted that the facts constitute sufficient
reason to proffer an early warning to the international community that the
population of Nagorno-Karabakh is at risk of suffering “serious bodily or
mental harm to members of the group” as defined in Article 2 of the Convention
on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide.

“The lack of compliance with a binding interim measure
issued by the ICJ to protect a population at risk is at least as severe an
early warning than refusal to cooperate with judicial investigations”,
Professor Mendez concluded, pointing out to Azerbaijan’s defiance of the
legally binding order of the International Court of Justice as an indication
that necessitates the exercise of the UN’s early warning and prevention
capacities.