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The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) received the complete applications in the inter-State cases Azerbaijan v. Armenia and Armenia v. Azerbaijan on 15 January and 1 February 2021, respectively. According to the press release issued by ECHR, previously, the Court received requests for interim measures, lodged respectively by Armenia and Azerbaijan on 27 September and 27 October 2020. On 29 September 20201 it granted an interim measure under Rule 39 of the Rules of Court. 

Taking the view that the developing situation gave rise to a risk of serious violations of the Convention, it called upon both Armenia and Azerbaijan 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 life and health at risk, and to comply with their obligations under the Convention, notably in respect of Article 2 (right to life) and Article 3 (prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment). In a statement of 4 November 20202, the Court clarified that the States were under an obligation to respect also the Convention rights of those captured during the conflict.

In addition, the Court has received numerous requests under Rule 39 concerning alleged captives, lodged by the Government of either Armenia or Azerbaijan or by relatives of the captives. The requests received so far concern 241 individuals, 228 Armenians and 13 Azerbaijanis. The Court has invited the respondent Government to provide information on the individuals concerned.

Simultaneously, the Court has either suspended the examination under Rule 39 when the respondent Government have provided adequate information on their captives or applied Rule 39 when the Government have not given sufficient information or have not given any information at all.

It is noted that the above-mentioned inter-State applications contain allegations of widespread violations of the Convention during the hostilities starting on 27 September 2020, 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.