United Nations General Assembly Resolution 62/243

United Nations General Assembly Resolution 62/243, titled "The Situation in the Occupied Territories of Azerbaijan", is a resolution of the United Nations General Assembly about the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, which was adopted on March 14, 2008 at the 62nd session of the General Assembly. It became the fifth United Nations document concerning Nagorno-Karabakh and the first United Nations General Assembly document on it.

The resolution reaffirmed "continued respect and support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity" of Azerbaijan "within its internationally recognized borders", demanded the "immediate, complete and unconditional withdrawal of all Armenian forces from all the occupied territories" of Azerbaijan and emphasized that "no state shall render aid or assistance" to maintain the occupation of Azerbaijani territories.^[1] The resolution was adopted shortly after 2008 Mardakert skirmishes, which became the heaviest ceasefire violation between Armenia and Azerbaijan since the end of Nagorno-Karabakh War.

Draft resolution

In early 2005 the UN General Assembly’s dispatch of a fact-finding mission had confirmed Armenian settlement in Azerbaijan's territory.^[2] The Permanent Representative of Azerbaijan to UN Agshin Mehdiyev presented the draft resolution A/62/L.42, which was adopted by a recorded vote of 39 in favour to 7 against (including OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs), with 100 abstentions.^[2] The table below shows related voting results, except Armenia and Azerbaijan, who voted against and in favour, respectively, and abstentions.

For	Against
Afghanistan	Angola
Bahrain	France
Bangladesh	India
Brunei	Russia
Cambodia	United States
Colombia	Vanuatu
Comoros
Djibouti
Gambia
Georgia
Indonesia
Iraq
Jordan
Kuwait
Libya
Malaysia
Maldives
Moldova
Morocco
Myanmar
Niger
Nigeria
Oman
Pakistan
Qatar
Saudi Arabia
Senegal
Serbia
Sierra Leone
Somalia
Sudan
Turkey
Tuvalu
Uganda
Ukraine

Voting rationales

Indonesia. Indonesian representative said he had voted in favour because the document reaffirms principles and objectives in addressing the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.^[2]
OSCE Minsk Group. Speaking on behalf of the group, the United States said that the Co-Chairs voted against because they "viewed resolution 62/243 as selectively propagating only certain of those principles to the exclusion of others, without considering the Co-Chairs’ proposal in its balanced entirety".
South Africa. According to the South African representative, his delegation had abstained from voting because the document supported the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group to settle the conflict.^[2]
United Kingdom. According to Lord Howell of Guildford, his country abstained from voting "as the resolution did not take into account the Madrid Principles or Minsk Group process".^[3]