The  NKR Human Rights Defender has issued on  facts of human shielding and use of indiscriminate weapons against the civilian population of Nagorno Karabakh by Azerbaijani military forces.

The report reminds that since 2 April 2016, the Azerbaijani military forces have committed numerous grave violations of international human rights law and humanitarian law by aggressively attacking the entire Line of Contact between the NKR-Azerbaijani forces, as well as the Nagorno Karabakh settlements near the Line of Contact and deep in the rear.

According to the statement, Intentional deployment by Azerbaijan of its military units and artillery in the vicinity and within civilian settlements and using them as firing positions goes against the obligations imposed upon by the Geneva Convention (IV, Article 28) to which Azerbaijani  is a State Party and which reflects fundamental rules of international humanitarian law, as well as other obligations under customary international law.