General Comment on the draft resolution Combating intolerance, negative stereotyping and stigmatization of, and discrimination, incitement to violence and violence against, person based on religion or belief

01 April, 2022

Delivered by H.E. Andranik HOVHANNISYAN, Permanent Representative

President,

Armenia finds both the subject and content of this resolution extremely important for the global multilateral cooperation.

Armenia communicated two years ago to all interested parties its concern on the selective manner of invitations extended to the States for participation in the meetings conducted under the general rubric of the implementation of the HRC resolution 16/18, which is also known as Istanbul Process. The latter was envisaged as the primary intergovernmental policy framework and platform to foster dialogue, exchange perspectives, share experiences and lessons learnt on combatting intolerance and discrimination.

In this context, Armenia reiterates its principled position that any process, which harbors an ambition of being universally supported and endorsed through the UN resolutions must be open for participation to all UN member States without any discrimination.

Armenia acknowledges that in the most recent case of the Eighth meeting of the Istanbul Process entitled “Tenth anniversary of HRC Resolution 16/18: Looking Back and Moving Forward,” held online from Geneva on 16 February 2022, our concerns were addressed. All member States of the United Nations, including Armenia, received an invitation to participate in the meeting. We encourage the penholders of this resolution and all future hosts of the meetings under the heading of Istanbul process to keep up with this practice.

It is awkward that Armenia even needed to raise this issue, especially in the context of combatting intolerance and discrimination. That very fact testifies that there is still a lot of work to be done in this direction by this august Council and other UN bodies.

I thank you.

MFA RA
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