HRC 48: General comment on the draft resolution "The use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination" Delivered by H.E. Mr. Andranik Hovhannisyan, Permanent Representative

11 October, 2021

October 7, 2021

HRC 48: Decisions and conclusions

General comment on the draft resolution A/HRC/48/L.12: The use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination

Delivered by H.E. Mr. Andranik Hovhannisyan, Permanent Representative

President,

Armenia thanks the delegation of Cuba for presenting the resolution.

The negative impact of mercenarism is constantly evolving, inciting acute threats and challenges across regions. This year’s report of the Working group made an attempt to explore the activities of private military and security services in humanitarian action. As a long-standing supporter of a similar resolution in the General Assembly, we are strongly convinced that a number of conceptual observations of the report on the need to regulate mercenary activities with the perspective of international humanitarian law should find further exploration and operationalization in the resolution.

Last year, for the second time in 30 years, we have experienced large scale influx of mercenaries to our region. They were recruited and trafficked from the war-torn regions of the Middle East to support a military aggression. This has been reflected in the public communications of the Working Group on the use of Mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination. It was not an isolated case, since the same perpetrators were featured in country specific reports as child soldier recruiters. Those are appalling realities on the ground across several continents that need to be urgently addressed.

President,

The resolution and mandate that it created have a unique mission of addressing a number of cross cutting violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. The Human Rights Council and in particular the discussions we are having on mercenaries and mercenarism are the right premise to resonate the pressing concerns around constant proliferation of unlawful mercenary activities and especially impunity for the human rights violations.

We will remain strongly engaged and will do our part to make sure that Council continues to be ceased by the matter.

I thank you.

MFA RA
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