“War Crimes Must Not Go Unpunished”: Daniel Ioannisyan’s Statement at the OSCE

Today, October 5, at the OSCE ODIHR Human Dimension Conference in Warsaw, Daniel Ioannisyan, Program Coordinator at the Union of Informed Citizens NGO, delivered a speech addressing violations of international humanitarian law and human rights in the context of armed conflicts.

In his remarks, Daniel Ioannisyan referred to war crimes committed by the Azerbaijani armed forces against Armenians, the ethnic cleansing of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as the severe humanitarian situation in the Ukrainian city of Oleshky, which is under Russian occupation.

The full text of Daniel Ioannisyan’s statement in English is provided below.

“Today, as we discuss humanitarian law and human rights in the context of armed conflicts, absolutely terrible things are happening across the OSCE region.

During its armed conflicts with Armenians in 2016, 2020, 2022, and 2023, Azerbaijani troops committed a number of war crimes that remain unpunished and uninvestigated. Like, for example, the execution of seven unarmed Armenian POWs in 2022, which was filmed by Azerbaijani servicemen themselves.

After many years of advocacy by civil society, Armenia adopted the Rome Statute and joined the International Criminal Court. Azerbaijan, however, has not done so, and there appears to be no indication that it intends to join the Court.

Therefore, we call on the Azerbaijani government to follow Armenia’s example and ratify the Rome Statute in order to prevent war crimes in the future.

We also call on our colleagues from Azerbaijani civil society to push for this. At the end of the day, the role of civil society is to push for change, rather than copy the official agenda of the government.

While discussing this topic, it is also impossible to bypass the state-organized ethnic cleansing of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh in 2023. As a result, within just a few days, more than 100,000 Armenians left Nagorno-Karabakh – virtually its entire Armenian population. Only a tiny number of Armenians remained: a dozen people.

But Armenian-Azerbaijani armed conflict is now over. We still have unsolved problems, but we don’t kill each other. So, I would therefore like to draw your attention to the developments taking place today

These days, even as we are holding this meeting, thousands of residents of the Ukrainian city of Oleshky are struggling. The city has been under Russian occupation since 2022, but the situation has become particularly terrible over the past couple of months. Food and basic medicine are unavailable.

It is quite clear that this situation will not resolve by itself. It is also clear that Russia is not going to provide the assistance these residents need and will continue preventing the Ukrainian side from doing so.

We call on all the member states, including the ones who maintain good relations with Russia, to push Moscow to allow humanitarian aid to Oleshky. Ukraine should be able to provide aid to its citizens, and those citizens should have the opportunity to be evacuated to Ukraine.

If considerable humanitarian measures are not taken within the coming weeks, the approaching winter could have catastrophic consequences, and thousands of people may die”․