On August 18, 2023, the “International and Comparative Law Center” presented a report to the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances. The report presented documented information on Armenians who were forcibly disappeared during the 2020 44-day war, raising the issue at the international legal level.
In the same year, in the submitted report, the Center provided a comprehensive overview of the total number of persons captured and missing as a result of the war, highlighting six cases. The International and Comparative Law Center submitted irrefutable evidence to the Working Group confirming the circumstances of their capture and subsequent disappearance. Azerbaijan’s inaction in properly investigating this evidence and in clarifying the fate of the missing persons was recorded. The report also emphasizes the racial discrimination and ethnic hatred against ethnic Armenians, considering it as one of the systemic causes of enforced disappearances. Within the framework of standard procedure, the Working Group transmitted these cases to Azerbaijan.
In March 2024, on behalf of the relatives of the missing persons, the Center submitted another report to the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, in which the circumstances of the disappearance of 8 persons are described in detail. Additionally, this report also included information about the general situation in Artsakh during the blockade and the war of September 19, 2023. Despite the submitted complaints, the Government of Azerbaijan provided a response regarding only 15 of the unresolved cases registered by the Working Group. However, these clarifications did not satisfy the Working Group, which resulted in requesting additional information.
Since 2020, the International and Comparative Law Center has maintained active and constructive engagement with the Working Group, consistently responding to the replies submitted by Azerbaijan, which are often of a dismissive nature and contain claims regarding the absence of information.
At a later stage, the Center submitted an additional application, in which the details of all cases transmitted through the Working Group were summarized in chronological order. For each case, specific factual data were presented regarding the circumstances of the disappearance, the last known location, and the conditions under which the person was last seen. The report also included references to videos and photographs disseminated in Azerbaijani sources as additional evidentiary material, and once again emphasized that one of the systemic causes of enforced disappearances is the policy of racial discrimination and ethnic hatred against Armenians.
In February 2026, the Working Group transmitted to the Center Azerbaijan’s responses, concerning 18 forcibly disappeared persons. The International and Comparative Law Center held meetings with family members, shared the information with them, discussed it, and received comments from relatives, which were subsequently incorporated into the report submitted to the Working Group. The report states that the information provided by the Government of Azerbaijan does not demonstrate the conduct of any prompt, effective, and impartial investigation aimed at clarifying the fate and whereabouts of the missing persons. Some of the missing persons were seen alive under the control of Azerbaijani forces, in which case the obligation to clarify their fate lies with the state. Nevertheless, the responses provided are largely formal in nature, do not present concrete steps taken in the investigation, and do not contribute to clarifying the fate of the missing persons.
It should be recalled that as early as 2022, the Director of the Center, Siranush Sahakyan, had announced at least 80 documented cases of enforced disappearances of Armenians, which was also confirmed by the University Network for Human Rights.