GW Law's Manatt/Ahn Professor of International Law Sean D. Murphy argued before the International Court of Justice (World Court) in The Hague, Netherlands, seeking protections for ethnic Armenians who fled Nagorno-Karabakh in September.
Appearing on behalf of the Republic of Armenia, Professor Murphy urged the World Court to issue against Azerbaijan an Order for interim measures of protection, requiring Azerbaijan to take various steps to allow more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians, including some 30,000 children, to return to their ancestral homeland. Such steps include granting unfettered access to Nagorno-Karabakh for a UN monitoring mission, as well as access by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
“Azerbaijan launched a major military operation against Nagorno-Karabakh on September 19, which prompted these ethnic Armenians to immediately flee from Azerbaijan to Armenia, and it is imperative that the Court now help create the conditions that will allow for their return,” said Professor Murphy. He noted that the Court’s jurisdiction arises from the ratification by both countries of the 1965 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
A video of Professor Murphy’s argument may be found at here (top video, from 1:26:13 to 1:54:52) and further information on the case may be found here.