HRC 51th Session: Item 3 - Interactive Dialogue with Expert Mechanism on the right to development Delivered by Ms. Nelli Petrosyan - Embassy of Armenia to Switzerland and Permanent Mission of Armenia to the UN office at Geneva

HRC 51th Session: Item 3 - Interactive Dialogue with Expert Mechanism on the right to development Delivered by Ms. Nelli Petrosyan

26 September, 2022

President,

We thank the Expert Mechanism for its thematic study and the special focus on the intersections between racism and the right to development.

Armenia concurs with the view that all forms of racial discrimination hamper the operationalization of the right to development and that States have the responsibility to eliminate it as a prerequisite for the realization of the right to development.

However, in some regions of the world, the violations of human rights and the right to development due to racial discrimination based on ethnic and national origin are still very common and are among the root causes of armed conflicts.

In this regard, the most recent Concluding observations of the CERD Committee on Azerbaijan expressed deep concern on allegations of grave violations by Azerbaijan against Armenian PoWs, killings, torture, arbitrary detention, destruction of houses, schools, heritage, incitement to hatred and racist stereotypes by public figures and officials.

This environment of hatred motivated Azerbaijan for a new aggression against sovereign territory of Armenia just several days ago. A number of UN Members States urged Azerbaijan to cease the hostilities. We call the international community to remain seized of the matter.

I thank you

Right of reply

President,

It is a well-established fact that the wars imposed upon the people of Nagorno-Karabakh in the course of 30 years by Azerbaijan were marked by ethnic cleansing and massacres. Azerbaijan’s anti-Armenian policy and hatred remarkably manifested itself during the war in fall 2020. The wartime statements of Azerbaijani politicians called for the killing and extermination of the entire civilian population in Nagorno-Karabakh. The anti-Armenian policy of Azerbaijan was demonstrated also by the widespread destruction of Armenian cultural heritage sites, which aimed at the erasure of Armenian history in Nagorno-Karabakh. This racist policy continues in depriving the Armenian PoWs and civilian detainees of their basic human rights.

Azerbaijan never waists an opportunity to resort to intimidation against the civilian population of Nagorno-Karabakh. In particular, Azerbaijan used loudspeakers coercing the residents to leave their homes.

Azerbaijan launched a war of aggression against the Republic of Armenia few days ago. A number of UN member states urged Azerbaijan to cease the hostilities. We hope these calls will sober Azerbaijan up.

The constant attempts of Azerbaijan to carry out ethnic cleansing, either through explicit military aggression or through depriving Armenians of their basic human rights, violate numerous norms of international law. In no circumstances should the international community give a blank license to Azerbaijan to pursue its ethnic cleansing campaign.

I thank you

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