Recommendations on Security issues in the Region of the Karabakh Conflict

In the framework of the “Breaking the Impasse” project, a group of experts from the region of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict met in Berlin on September 13-17, 2013. Based on international humanitarian law, the group offers a number of recommendations to strengthen security in the conflict zone. The recommendations that were developed refer to those aspects concerning security around which the group was able to develop a consensus. At the same time the present document does not claim to provide a comprehensive overview of the questions concerning security in the conflict zone. The group recommends to: 

- calling on the sides to rigorously maintain the ceasefire regime and to prevent any actions leading to casualties in the civilian population and among military personnel;  

- developing measures to strengthen civic control over maintenance of the ceasefire regime;

- developing measures that would exclude expressions of xenophobia, hate speech and the language of violence;   

- initiating a depoliticized process to develop legal norms and guarantees for secure return and/or compensation for all individuals who were forced to leave their homes;

- studying the experience of demilitarized zones throughout the world and the possibility of implementing a demilitarized zone in the region of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

This document was produced in the framework of a project implemented with organizational support from The Center for Peacemaking Practice in the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University and the Imagine Center for Conflict Transformation. The project is supported by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, reads the press release sent to Turan news agency. No other details reported. -0-