By Hasmik Hovhannisyan
The NGOs Path of Law and Union for the Protection of the Interests and Rights of the People of Artsakh submitted a request to Armenia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in March, asking that Armenia delegate the consular protection of Armenian detainees held in Baku to Switzerland as a third country. The request was confirmed to CivilNet by Siranush Sahakyan, human rights lawyer and co-founder of Path of Law.
According to Sahakyan, the Ministry informed them that the question of whether to submit such a request and to which country is currently under discussion.
This issue has gained urgency following Azerbaijan’s decision in early March to suspend the activities of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) within its territory. The ICRC has been the only international body granted access to Armenian detainees held in Baku and has served as a crucial channel of communication between the prisoners and their families. The ICRC has operated in the region since the start of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War in the early 1990s, with delegations in Baku and Yerevan and an office in Stepanakert.
Sahakyan noted that although the NGOs had raised the matter in several meetings, they had not previously made the issue public. “The urgency changed when the ICRC was forced to halt operations in Azerbaijan. The discontinuation of those services for the detainees in Baku could have irreversible consequences,” she said.
Delegating consular authority, Sahakyan added, also implicates the detainees’ right to a fair trial. “The scope of consular services is broad. It includes monitoring conditions of detention, verifying whether detainees’ rights are respected, and may involve medical issues.”
According to international law, the third party entrusted with consular responsibilities must be a neutral state acceptable to both the sending and receiving countries. As to why Switzerland was proposed, Sahakyan explained that the country’s position was reinforced by a resolution recently passed by the Swiss Parliament, which calls for Switzerland to provide a dialogue platform between displaced Artsakh Armenians and Azerbaijanis. “This matters not just for detainee protection, but also for the long-term implementation of the right of return for displaced Artsakh Armenians,” she added.
On March 18, the upper house of the Swiss Parliament voted in favor of establishing a Peace Forum for Nagorno-Karabakh, urging the government to set up a platform for dialogue between representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan. The resolution was earlier adopted by the lower house (National Council) in December 2024.
According to the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, a state that lacks a diplomatic mission in another country can by the consent of both parties delegate the protection of its nationals to a third country. This mechanism is fundamental when two countries have no diplomatic relations. In such cases, the third country acts as a protecting power, either temporarily or over a longer period.
One of the most cited precedents of this provision is the 1979 case when the United States, after severing diplomatic ties with Iran during the Islamic Revolution and the detention of 52 American diplomats, entrusted consular responsibilities to Switzerland.
Following Azerbaijan’s one-day military offensive on September 19–20, 2023, and the ethnic cleansing of the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh, Baku detained several senior political and military figures from the former Artsakh Republic. These include three former presidents: Arkadi Ghukasyan, Bako Sahakyan, and Arayik Harutyunyan, National Assembly Speaker Davit Ishkhanyan, former State Minister Ruben Vardanyan, former Defense Army Commander Levon Mnatsakanyan, Deputy Commander Davit Manukyan, and former Foreign Minister Davit Babayan.
Azerbaijan has officially acknowledged holding 23 Armenian prisoners, most of whom were captured after the 2020 war.
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