IV 
117TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. RES. 1400 
Condemning atrocities committed by the Republic of Azerbaijan. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
SEPTEMBER 28, 2022 
Ms. SPEIER (for herself, Mr. SCHIFF, Ms. ESHOO, and Mr. PALLONE) sub-
mitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on 
Foreign Affairs 
RESOLUTION 
Condemning atrocities committed by the Republic of 
Azerbaijan. 
Whereas the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Pre-
amble states that ‘‘Member States have pledged them-
selves to achieve, in cooperation with the United Nations, 
the promotion of universal respect for and observance of 
human rights and fundamental freedoms’’; 
Whereas Article 2 of the United Nations Charter directs all 
Member States to ‘‘refrain . . . from the threat or use 
of force against the territorial integrity or political inde-
pendence of any State’’; 
Whereas the Republic of Azerbaijan joined the United Na-
tions on March 2, 1992, and thus has a duty to abide 
by the conditions of the United Nations Charter and 
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•HRES 1400 IH 
pledges reflected in the Universal Declaration of Human 
Rights; 
Whereas the Republic of Azerbaijan ratified the Geneva Con-
ventions in 1993, which establish international legal 
standards on the treatment of civilians, prisoners of war 
(POWs) and soldiers who are otherwise rendered incapa-
ble of fighting; 
Whereas Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions pro-
hibits, among other violations, ‘‘mutilation, cruel treat-
ment and torture . . . [and] outrages upon personal dig-
nity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment’’; 
Whereas grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva Conventions con-
stitute war crimes under both United States law and the 
Rome Statute, including willful killing and extrajudicial 
executions, torture, inhumane treatment, causing great 
suffering or serious injury to body or health, unlawful de-
portation or confinement, and hostage taking; 
Whereas on September 13, 2022, the Republic of Azerbaijan 
launched an unprovoked and illegal attack against the 
sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia; 
Whereas this attack followed a large-scale, unprovoked inva-
sion of the Nagorno-Karabakh region by Azerbaijan in 
October 2020; 
Whereas on September 28, 2020, Azerbaijani forces con-
ducted a targeted attack on an Armenian military ambu-
lance in which assailants shot and killed a military doc-
tor; 
Whereas on October 14, 2020, Azerbaijani rocket artillery 
struck the Martakert Military Hospital in an ‘‘apparently 
deliberate’’ attack, according to Human Rights Watch, in 
which the nearest military target was over 1.5 kilometers 
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•HRES 1400 IH 
away and the rocket’s satellite guidance capability en-
sures accuracy within 10 meters; 
Whereas on October 28, 2020, an Azerbaijani artillery rocket 
struck the maternity ward of the Republican Medical 
Center, causing extensive damage; 
Whereas the targeting of both military and civilian medical 
facilities and workers is a violation of international hu-
manitarian law; 
Whereas in October 2020 video footage authenticated by non- 
governmental organizations including Amnesty Inter-
national showed Azerbaijani soldiers decapitating two ci-
vilians on two separate occasions while they were bound 
or pinned to the ground; 
Whereas in October 2020 Azerbaijan’s Armed Forces used 
white phosphorus munitions, prohibited under the Geneva 
Conventions, causing severe burns and the deaths of civil-
ians; 
Whereas firsthand accounts have confirmed the torture and 
extrajudicial killing of Armenian POWs and captured ci-
vilians held illegally under Azerbaijani detention; 
Whereas since October 2020 Azerbaijan has illegally detained 
over 100 prisoners of war and captured civilians in viola-
tion of the November 9, 2020, tripartite agreement, in 
which Azerbaijan committed to repatriating all prisoners 
of war and captured civilians; 
Whereas as of September 20, 2022, Azerbaijani forces have 
captured at least 20 additional serviceman and 3 civilian 
prisoners of war; 
Whereas Article 15 of the first Geneva Convention of 1949 
directs parties to a conflict to ‘‘take all possible measures 
to search for and collect the wounded and sick, to protect 
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•HRES 1400 IH 
them against pillage and ill-treatment, to ensure their 
adequate care, and to search for the dead and prevent 
their being despoiled’’; 
Whereas on September 16, 2022, Armenia’s Chief of Staff of 
the Army verified disturbing video footage showing the 
mutilation and desecration a female servicemember’s 
body by Azerbaijani soldiers; 
Whereas video footage recorded in September 2022 depicted 
a captured Armenian soldier receiving treatment for a 
shoulder wound, whose body was later returned to the 
Armenian Government, suggesting that he was killed in 
captivity; 
Whereas Azerbaijan has directly targeted Armenian cultural 
sites as a means of further disenfranchising the Arme-
nian people by eliminating their cultural existence; 
Whereas Armenia and Azerbaijan are States parties to the 
Second Protocol of the 1954 Hague Convention for the 
Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed 
Conflict, adopted in 1991, which reads, ‘‘the Parties to 
a conflict shall ensure the immunity of cultural property 
under enhanced protection by refraining from making 
such property the object of attack or from any use of the 
property or its immediate surroundings in support of 
military action.’’ 
Whereas Article 53 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva 
Conventions, prohibits committing any ‘‘acts of hostility 
directed against the historic monuments, works of art or 
places of worship which constitute the cultural or spir-
itual heritage of peoples’’; 
Whereas on October 8, 2020 Azerbaijan’s forces twice shelled 
the 19th-century Ghazanchetsots Holy Saviour Cathedral 
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in Shushi, a culturally and religiously significant building 
of the Armenian Apostolic Church, causing extensive 
damage; 
Whereas a report issued by Human Rights Watch on Decem-
ber 16, 2020, found that the attack ‘‘appear[ed] to be a 
deliberate targeting in violation of the laws of war,’’ and 
its analysis of weapon remnants found at the scene of the 
strike were ‘‘consistent with a munition capable of being 
accurately directed at a specific target’’; 
Whereas a report issued on May 12, 2021, by the United 
States Commission on International Religious Freedom 
(USCIRF) recommended placing Azerbaijan on U.S. De-
partment of State’s Special Watch List for engaging in 
or tolerating severe violations of religious freedom pursu-
ant to the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA), 
in part due to ‘‘recent violations committed amid renewed 
conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding terri-
tories’’ and raised serious concerns over the preservation 
of Armenian places of worship, cemeteries, and other reli-
gious and cultural heritage sites in the region; 
Whereas on September 16, 2021, the Republic of Armenia 
initiated proceedings before the International Court of 
Justice alleging violations of the International Convention 
on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, to which 
both the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azer-
baijan are party; 
Whereas international humanitarian law requires parties to a 
conflict to distinguish between civilian and military ob-
jects and violations of the laws of war committed with 
criminal intent, either intentionally or through reckless 
action, can constitute war crimes; 
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•HRES 1400 IH 
Whereas the United States serves as a Co-Chair of the Orga-
nization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Minsk 
Group, along with France and Russia, and is committed 
to sustainable, long-term peace in the region; and 
Whereas both Azerbaijan and Armenia are NATO Partner-
ship for Peace countries, and have committed to increase 
stability, diminish threats to peace, and build strength-
ened security relationships among NATO and non-
member countries in the Euro-Atlantic area: Now, there-
fore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) condemns Azerbaijan’s destabilizing actions, 
including violations of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, 
which have severely undermine the international rule 
of law; 
(2) encourages the United States Government 
and international community to petition the Inter-
national Court of Justice, European Court of 
Human Rights, or other appropriate international 
tribunals to take appropriate steps to investigate any 
and all war crimes committed by the Azerbaijani 
forces at the direction of President Ilham Aliyev; 
(3) calls on Azerbaijan to immediately inves-
tigate all grave violations of the Geneva Conventions 
perpetrated by Azerbaijani servicemembers against 
Armenian servicemembers and civilians; 
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•HRES 1400 IH 
(4) condemns the intentional or reckless de-
struction, vandalization, or desecration of all Arme-
nian cultural and religious heritage sites; 
(5) reaffirms the United States strong support 
for Common Article 3 of the 1949 Geneva Conven-
tion, to which the United States is party, as well as 
the non-treaty based law and longstanding norms 
outlined in the Geneva Protocol I and 1899 and 
1907 Hague Conventions; 
(6) encourages the President of the United 
States to explore the applicability of sanctions on 
Azerbaijan in response to its aggression and poten-
tial war crimes; and 
(7) reaffirms its support of Armenia’s sov-
ereignty and territorial integrity, as well as that of 
the Republic of Artsakh, against Azerbaijan’s mili-
tary aggression and blatant violations of inter-
national laws and norms. 
Æ 
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