Watch the report on Baku Int'l Virtual Humanitarian Law Moot on Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflicts
“ In November 24, 2020, the “Legal Analysis and Research” Public Union
conducted the Baku International Virtual Humanitarian Law Conference via Zoom
online platform. The conference is conducted in cooperation with the State
Committee on Work with Diaspora of the Republic of Azerbaijan and supported
by The Council on State Support to NGOs under the Auspices of the President
of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
The key issue of the conference was the protection of civilians in armed
conflicts.
Sessions on humanitarian law and human rights aspects of the protection of
children and women in armed conflict as well as the role of non-state actors,
such as NGOs in designing the future steps of actions for work with civilians
affected with the consequences of the war were discussed.
In international humanitarian law, the protection of civilians is not the same as
the protection of combatants. This difference is particularly relevant in the
conduct of hostilities: there is a fundamental distinction between civilians
and combatants, and between military objectives and civilian objects.
Combatants may be attacked until they surrender or are otherwise hors de
combat, while civilians may not be targeted, unless and for such time as they
directly participate in hostilities, and they are protected by the principles of
proportionality and precaution against the incidental effects of attacks against
military objectives and combatants.
The report “Civilians are under attack” prepared by the Legal Analysis and
Research Public Union is presented at the conference by the moderator:
Civilians are under attack 44 days war
94 civilians have been killed, 414 injured and more than 4000 houses and other
civilian facilities were seriously damaged as a result of Armenia’s heavy artillery
attacks on Azerbaijan’s densely populated areas during 44 days war.
Amnesty International has verified the use of banned cluster bombs by Armenia,
following an attack on the city of Barda in Azerbaijan, media reported quoting
the statement released by Amnesty International. At least 21 people were killed,
with an estimated 70 more injured in this attack. Amnesty International’s Crisis
Response experts verified pictures (taken by Vice News reporters in the city) of
fragments of 9N235 cluster munitions from Russian-made 9M55 Smerch rockets, that appear to have been fired into the city by Armenian forces.
Geneva Convention IV and Protocol II codify the principles according to which the
civilian population as such, as well as individual civilians, shall not be the object
of attack. The Declaration on the Protection of Women and Children in
Emergency and Armed Conflict says that, attacks and bombings on the
civilian population, inflicting incalculable suffering, especially on women
and children, who are the most vulnerable members of the population, shall be
prohibited, and such acts shall be condemned.
This conference was conducted online and symbolically dedicated to the UN World
Children Day. Representatives of the International Organization for Migration, International Red Cross Committee, Raoul Wallenberg Institute
of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (Sweden), Advocates, professors and students from Adakent University, Quantum5 Think Tank (UK), Athelos NGO (Netherlands),
individual experts from UN CEDAW Committee, AmCham and UNICEF as well as
national NGOs, representatives of Azerbaijani diaspora in Europe, and legal
experts took an active part at the conference. It was decided that the conference will be held annually online or offline. The Organizer and Moderator of the Conference,
Ramil Iskandarli suggested the next offline conference to be held next year in Baku or Shusha, Azerbaijan.
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