Luis Moreno Ocampo, former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, believes that states deliberately ignore the danger of genocides in order not to assume the obligation to prevent them. Luis Moreno Ocampo stressed that the forced displacement in Artsakh after Baku’s military aggression is also a form of genocide, emphasizing that genocide is not just mass murder.

To the question of what legal mechanisms exist to protect the rights of the people of Artsakh and which can work? Luis Moreno Ocampo responded that we must fight to respect the rights of the people, because even if the people are not there, they are the owners of their lands and their properties, so their rights must be respected. Ocampo said he considered the recovery and release of the hostages a priority. There are 53 prisoners in Baku. The problem is that international law does not work in such a way that, for example, if someone steals your bike, you can go to the police and court. No, that doesn’t exist. There is the International Court of Justice, presumably for states, and there is the International Criminal Court for prosecuting individuals. The legal process to release these people is not simple, but we must develop it politically. This is why the conference on the Artsakh issue in the European Parliament was important.