Post-Ceasefire Nagorno-Karabakh: Limits to the ECtHR’s Approach to Jurisdiction over Secessionist Entities under the ECHR

This paper examines whether (and if so, on what basis) the events taking place in Nagorno-Karabakh after the signature of a trilateral ceasefire agreement in November 2020 would fall within the jurisdiction under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) of Azerbaijan as a territorial State; Armenia as potentially exercising effective control there; or Russia given the presence of its peacekeeping mission in the region. It also outlines the future developments after Russia ceases to be the party to the ECHR. On the example of Nagorno-Karabakh, the paper demonstrates the limits to the European Court of Human Rights’ approach to jurisdiction over secessionist entities under the ECHR. In particular, it highlights the relativity of the requirement of the presence of the ‘boots on the ground’ as the element of the effective control test under a spatial extra-territorial model of jurisdiction.