ALC’s Siranush Sahakyan to discuss Armenian hostage cases in LA
Attorney representing Armenian hostages before ECHR to headline Sept. 22 Burbank town hall and Sept. 24 UCLA program
LOS ANGELES — Siranush Sahakyan, the human rights attorney representing Armenian hostages held by Azerbaijan before the European Court of Human Rights, will speak at two public programs in the Los Angeles area this month, days after briefing members of Congress on Capitol Hill.
Sahakyan, executive director of the Armenian Legal Center for Justice and Human Rights (ALC), will address the community at a free Town Hall in Burbank on Tuesday, Sept. 22, then present a legal analysis of Azerbaijan’s cases against Armenian civilian leadership at UCLA School of Law on Thursday, Sept. 24. Both programs are open to the public.
Event details:
Town Hall with Human Rights Attorney Siranush Sahakyan
Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026, 7 p.m. PDT
Location: ACF Beshir Mardirossian Youth Center, 75 E. Santa Anita Ave., Burbank, CA 91502.
Sponsor: Armenian Revolutionary Federation Western United States
Admission: Free and open to the public
Focus: The latest developments concerning Armenian hostages held by Azerbaijan and property claims of Armenians forcibly displaced from Artsakh
An Insider’s View: Unpacking Azerbaijan’s Cases against Armenian Civilian Leadership in Nagorno-Karabakh/Artsakh
Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026, 5:30 p.m. PDT
Location: UCLA School of Law, Room 1347, Los Angeles, CA 90095
Host: The Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA School of Law
Co-sponsors: Armenian Bar Association, Armenian Legal Center for Justice and Human Rights, The Promise Armenian Institute at UCLA, UCLA Armenian Law Students’ Association, and the Armenian National Committee of America Western Region
Admission: Free and open to the public. Registration requested: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfDN0YiJLGvPtuV7sxWgdsvZTYxJ9hVPMstFLLWOx2cR9N3-Q/viewform
Media outlets wishing to attend the Sept. 22 event or schedule an interview should RSVP to Kevork Hagopjian, (818) 472-6756, or email media@armenianlegal.org by Monday, Sept. 21.
Background
Siranush Sahakyan is the executive director of the Armenian Legal Center for Justice and Human Rights and serves as president of the International and Comparative Law Center, representing Armenian hostages and their families before the European Court of Human Rights.
Last month she submitted a collective application to the Court concerning violations of the rights of 15 Armenians held in Azerbaijan, including political and military leaders of Artsakh. That filing follows a separate application in the case of Artsakh State Minister Ruben Vardanyan, sentenced to 20 years following proceedings Sahakyan has described as fundamentally illegitimate. Her review of the Baku verdict found the judgment failed to identify direct testimony establishing that Vardanyan personally committed, ordered, or directed many of the acts attributed to him.
The hostages are held in what Sahakyan calls conditions of “absolute isolation,” with no physical access to relatives, independent doctors or attorneys, consular representatives, or the International Committee of the Red Cross, which closed its permanent delegation in September 2025 at Azerbaijan’s decision. No ICRC visits were permitted throughout 2026, ending independent oversight of detainees’ treatment.
Sahakyan delivered the keynote on Sept. 15 at the Armenian National Committee of America’s “Accountability | 2026, Artsakh: Justice. Freedom. Right of Return.” program on Capitol Hill, marking three years since Azerbaijan’s genocidal ethnic cleansing of Artsakh, and met with over a dozen congressional offices calling for Global Magnitsky sanctions against Azerbaijani war criminals.
