The People, Even If Not There, Are Still the Owners of That Land and Property: Ocampo on Artsakh Residents

It is now very important to restore the rights of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh according to international norms. This was stated by former Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno Ocampo, in an interview with Armenpress.

“We must fight for the respect of the rights of the people because the people, even if they are not there, are still the owners of that land and property; thus, their rights must be respected. There are 53 prisoners in Azerbaijan. The issue is that international law does not function in a way that, for example, if someone steals your bicycle, you can go to the police and court. The legal process to release these people is not clear, but we must politically develop the process,” said Ocampo.

Ocampo also believes that states intentionally ignore the risk of genocides to avoid having the obligation to prevent them. He noted that the forced displacement that occurred in Nagorno-Karabakh after Azerbaijan's military aggression is also a form of genocide, emphasizing that genocide is not just mass killing.