Sahakyan on Post-War Captivity Cases

Currently, we have about 156 prisoners of war who have been repatriated thanks to legal and political efforts. However, there are still a significant number of prisoners held in Azerbaijan. This was stated today, on September 27, during a discussion titled 'Second Anniversary of the War: What Legal Instruments Have Been Implemented, What Can Be Done' by Syraush Sahakyan, a lawyer representing Armenian prisoners’ interests at the European Court.

'Of course, it is an exceedingly important issue that we have around 80 prisoners, who are not officially recognized by the Azerbaijani authorities to this day and have thus been subjected to enforced disappearances. The number of officially held prisoners in Azerbaijan before the resumption of hostilities on September 13 was 33, while we currently have around 20 new cases of abductions in the post-war period. The overwhelming majority of these cases have already been formalized, but further responses are expected through the ECHR, and we will be able to confirm more precisely regarding the recent incidents involving prisoners,' she said.

Sahakyan emphasized that they operate based on individual complaints, representing the prisoners of war and their families. 'These efforts are also supplemented by other lawyers. Simultaneously, there is an inter-state process in the ECHR, which also addresses the issue of prisoners, their treatment, and their repatriation. The issue of prisoners is also indirectly addressed at the International Court of Justice in the context of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. From this perspective, I believe that the legal efforts have been quite intensive and, in some respect, unprecedented because Armenia has previously refrained from presenting inter-state cases regarding human rights issues against any state. This is the first time that the state is actively operating in international legal forums,' she remarked.