The Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights to which the inter-State cases Armenia v. Azerbaijan and Azerbaijan v. Armenia had been allocated has relinquished jurisdiction in favour of the Grand Chamber of the Court.
It is noted that the Grand Chamber will study the two interstate cases.
The applications concern mainly the recent hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan and contain allegations of widespread violations of the Convention by the respondent States during the hostilities, including indiscriminate attacks on civilians as well as civilian and public property and infrastructure; executions, ill-treatment and mutilations of combatants and civilians; the capture and continued detention of prisoners of war; and the forced displacement of the civilian population in areas affected by the military actions.
The applications were lodged with the European Court of Human Rights on 27 September 2020 (Armenia v. Azerbaijan) and on 27 October 2020 (Azerbaijan v. Armenia).
In the context of the mentioned inter-State cases, the Court received requests for interim measures. Taking the view that the situation had given rise to a risk of serious violations of the Convention, the Court granted an interim measure and called upon both Azerbaijan and Armenia to refrain from taking any measures, in particular military action, which might entail breaches of the Convention rights of the civilian population, including putting their lives and health at risk, and to comply with their obligations under the Convention,” the statement reads.
On 9 March 2021 the Chamber to which the two inter-State applications had been allocated decided unanimously to inform the parties about its intention to relinquish jurisdiction in favour of the Grand Chamber.
