The Never-Ending War: Fact-finding on the Humanitarian Crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh/Artsakh
This event calls attention to the ongoing human rights and humanitarian crises in Nagorno-Karabakh/Artsakh and Armenia following the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War between Armenia and Azerbaijan in Fall 2020. The presentations and moderated discussion will focus on the preliminary findings of a fact-finding trip to the region conducted by four Promise Institute students this past summer 2023 with the University Network for Human Rights, a cross-campus research and advocacy institution facilitating student human rights work across the globe. The fact-finding trip was the final of multiple fact-finding trips – two in Nagorno-Karabakh and four in Armenia – between March 2022 and July 2023 conducted by partners Harvard Law School Advocates for Human Rights, Wesleyan University, Oxford University and Yale’s Lowenstein Project, in order to investigate and document atrocities being perpetrated against ethnic Armenians.
Thus far, the investigation has resulted in a briefing paper with recommendations to Azerbaijan, Armenia, the international community and the private sector for ending the crisis; an OpEd in Newsweek and a letter to the UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide analyzing the risk factors present warning of ethnic cleansing and risk of genocide. A full report and analysis of the situation will be launched later this year for purposes of facilitating interventions to end the crisis and efforts around accountability, with Armenia’s recent announcement that it will consider ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
UCLA Law’s Promise Institute for Human Rights Assistant Director Jess Peake will moderate, with Tamar Hayrikyan, the Director of the University Network for Human Rights speaking, along with Promise Institute-University Network Fellows Mischa Gureghian Hall, Luis Martínez, Cat Washington and Emily Wilder.