Declaration On Nagorno-karabakh
(Council Of Europe Committee Of Ministers)
(Adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 11 March 1992
at the 471bis meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies)
The Committee of Ministers, deeply concerned about recent reports of indiscriminate killings and outrages, firmly condemns the violence and attacks directed against the civilian populations in the Nagorno-Karabakh area of the Azerbaijan Republic. It underlines that no solution imposed by force can be accepted by the international community.
The Committee of Ministers endorses the recommendations of the CSCE participating states in Prague on 28 February that there should be an immediate and effective cease-fire; an embargo on the supply of arms to the area and the setting up of safe corridors for the channelling of humanitarian aid. It recalls that any solution to the crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh should be based on the rule of law, democracy, human rights, and guarantees for the rights of members of minorities and on the respect for inviolability of all borders, whether internal or external, which can only be changed by peaceful means and by common agreement.
The Committee of Ministers welcomes the agreement by the conflicting parties to the involvement of the International Committee of the Red Cross in the dispute and hopes that the ICRC and other NGOs will play the leading role in the supply of humanitarian aid to the victims of this dispute.
The Committee of Ministers supports all mediation efforts to find a peaceful solution to the dispute. Once an effective cease-fire is in place the dispute should be solved through negotiation among all the interested parties, including local authorities and representatives from Nagorno-Karabakh. Negotiations should be based on respect for both the letter and the spirit of the Helsinki Final Act and the Paris Charter adopted in the framework of the CSCE, and particularly the commitment to settle disputes by peaceful means.
