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On-Site Investigation Report on Human Rights in Karabakh

In Article 17 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the right to
property is regulated as “Everyone has the right to own property alone as
well as in association with others. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his
property.”

On the other hand, in 1998, the then special representative of the UN Secre-
tary-General on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced People, Dr Francis
Deng prepared the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement to pro-
vide protection to internally displaced people on the basis of international
humanitarian law and human rights treaties. It is emphasised in the docu-
ment that these principles “should be applied without discrimination of any
kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion or belief, political or other
opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, legal or social status, age, disabil-
ity, property, birth, or on any other similar criteria.” Principle 21 regulates
that “[n]o one shall be arbitrarily deprived of property and possessions; [t]
he property and possessions of internally displaces persons shall in all cir-
cumstances be protected, in particular, against the following acts: (a) pillage,
(b) direct or indiscriminate attacks or other acts or violence, ... and (e) being
destroyed or appropriated as a form of collective punishment; [p]roperty and
possessions left behind by internally displaced persons should be protected
against destruction and arbitrary and illegal appropriation, occupation, or
use.” Within the framework of the aforementioned issues, it was determined
that the principles of international humanitarian law were violated through
the destruction of the properties belonging to the civilians forced to migrate
into the settlements, including villages, and the appropriation of their be-
longings during the occupation.

III. Historical Artefacts and Cultural Assets

The protection of cultural assets is a matter of human rights. Therefore, dam-
aging cultural assets is also a violation of human rights.
As regulated in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “Everyone
has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting
from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.”
In the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, it is
regulated that necessary measures should be taken for the protection and
development of science and culture.

Although the definition of cultural property was first made in the Hague Con-
vention of 1954 (UNESCO Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property
in the Event of Armed Conflict), there are also many regulations on the pro-

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