Artsakh Conference to Be Held at the European Parliament on Feb. 27

BRUSSELS—European Parliament Members Michèle Rivasi (Verts/ALE) and Lars Adaktusson (EPP) will host international legal and public policy scholars to examine developments in international law, the status of the negotiations, and recommendations for achieving a peaceful resolution in Artsakh.

The event—entitled “Remedial Secession in Theory and Practice: The case of Nagorno-Karabagh/Artsakh”—will be held on Feb. 27 at the European Parliament (Room A5E1). The event is co-organized by the Tufenkian Foundation, Armenian Legal Center for Justice and Human Rights (ALC), and the European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy (EAFJD).

Speakers will include Dr. Alfred de Zayas, UN Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order; Dr. Paul Williams, Professor of Law, American University’s Washington College of Law and co-founder of the Public International Law & Policy Group; and Dr. Sergey Markedonov, associate Professor at Russian State University for the Humanities, expert of interethnic/ethno-political conflicts and de-facto states in the post-Soviet area and author of hundreds of publications.

Dr. de Zayas, appointed by the UN Human Rights Council as an Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order, teaches international law at the Geneva School of Diplomacy. He is a retired senior lawyer with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Geneva, a former Secretary of the U.N. Human Rights Committee; and former Chief of the Human Rights Petitions Department. An expert on civil and political rights, Dr. Zayas is a co-author of United Nations Human Rights Committee Case Law 1977—2008 and co-editor of International Human Rights Monitoring Mechanisms.

Dr. Paul R. Williams holds the Rebecca I. Grazier Professorship in Law and International Relations at American University where he teaches in the School of International Service and at the Washington College of Law. As a world renowned peace negotiation lawyer, Dr. Williams has assisted over two dozen parties in major international peace negotiations and has advised numerous parties on the drafting and implementation of post-conflict constitutions. Dr. Williams has served as a Senior Associate with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, as well as an Attorney-Adviser for European and Canadian affairs at the U.S. Department of State, Office of the Legal Adviser.

Dr. Sergey Markedonov is an Associate Professor at the Russian State University for the Humanities and an expert with the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) and the Gorchakov Public Diplomacy Fund with a focus on the Caucasus, interethnic/ethno-political conflicts and de-facto states in the post-Soviet area. He has written several books and reports, and more than 150 academic articles. From 2001 to 2010, Dr. Markedonov worked as head of the Interethnic Relations Group and Deputy Director at the Institute for Political and Military Analysis in Moscow and he also held teaching positions at the Russian State University for the Humanities, the Moscow State University, and the Diplomatic Academy. He has served as either a Visiting Fellow or Lecturer at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) (Germany), the Center for Strategic and International Studies (U.S.), and the Center of Central Eurasian Studies at the University of Mumbai (India).

For more information, visit: http://www.eafjd.eu/RemedialSecession.html