ECHR’s proceedings launch on April War cases is result of large scale work: Artsakh Ombudsman
Ombudsman of the Republic of Artsakh Ruben Melikyan said the fact that the European Court of Human Rights launched accelerated proceedings over 23 suits regarding the April War is joyous. Melikyan mentioned that it is a result of large scale work, which was done by an attorney group both from Artsakh and Armenia.
“The study of the European Court’s practice shows that if the case is examined under the usual procedure then it might last for up to 10 or more years. While in case of accelerated procedures it will last shorter, but not a few months.
The procedure is the following, initially the case is sent to the government of the responding side, Azerbaijan in the given case, and a rather long time is given for the responsible side to present its response.
Then it is sent to the applicants in order to comment on the response and present its demands on a fair compensation,” Melikyan said, adding that later it is again sent to the responding state, followed by the verdict.
According to the Ombudsman, overall in the European Court this is the easiest procedure, but often this mechanism passes thorough another circle. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) launched examinations into 23 cases regarding Azerbaijani war crimes during the April 4 day war, attorney Ara Ghazaryan told “Armenpress”, who is also involved in the lawyer-human rights activist group, which filed complaints to the ECHR over human rights violations of the civilian population and servicemen of Nagorno Karabakh committed by Azerbaijani forces.
“The ECHR began to examine the cases, which includes both the issue of launching proceedings and the essence of complaints. I can’t specify particular cases, because for some complaints the ECHR issued secrecy,” the attorney said, reminding they have been working on these cases from July 2016 till February of 2017. More than 700 suits have been filed to the ECHR against Azerbaijan regarding the protection of rights of servicemen and civilians during the 2016 April War.
