HRC 52nd Session. Item 4. Human rights situations that require the Council’s attention

23 March, 2023

Delivered by Minister Councillor Lilit Toutkhalian

1^st Right of Reply

Mr. President,

Armenia exercises its right of reply to Azerbaijan.

There is a clear connection between domestic repression in Azerbaijan and the war of aggression it pursues against Armenia. The popular discontent and dissent have been heavily cracked down in Azerbaijan, while flexing of muscles and expansionism are used by authorities to divert the attention of their public from the pervasive social griefs. This does not come as a surprise for a state that occupies 154^th place on the Press Freedom Index and 157^th on Corruption Perception Index.

The Nagorno Karabakh conflict itself has been a matter of suppression of fundamental freedoms of Armenians by Azerbaijan, which has been rejecting to recognize the human rights of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh. There are close to 1000 Armenian missing persons and enforced disappearances from the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. Recently the Special procedure mandate holders noted that they still anticipate from Azerbaijan (and I quote) “information on the factual and legal reasons for the continued detention of the POWs after the cessation of hostilities, and the measures taken to inform families of the disappeared about their fate and the exact whereabouts.”

Around 400.000 Armenians were displaced by Azerbaijan during the massacres and war of aggression it unleashed since 1990s. Azerbaijan has occupied and ethnically cleansed from indigenous Armenian population parts of Nagorno Karabakh and adjacent regions. Azerbaijan committed to the return of displaced Armenian population to those areas by the Trilateral ceasefire statement of 2020, however, it has not lived up with its obligations.

Azerbaijan has failed to implement other provisions of the Trilateral statement as well, resorting to the use of force and disrupting the Lachin Corridor, to name but a few. The peacebuilding efforts have been undermined by Azerbaijan’s destructive behavior, which fails to respect its commitments and pursues unconcealed policy of ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Armenian population of Nagorno Karabakh. It also makes overt territorial claims against the Republic of Armenia, combined with racist slurs against Armenians expressed at the highest levels.

It is of utmost importance to enforce mechanisms for the prevention of genocides and mass atrocities, among them the dispatch of a UN fact-finding mission to Nagorno Karabakh and the Lachin corridor to assess the situation on the ground and work out measures to prevent new tragedies.

Thank you.

2^nd Right of reply

Mr. President,

Armenia exercises its second right of reply to Azerbaijan.

Impunity, with which Azerbaijan breaches the international human rights law and the international humanitarian law, undermines the fundamentals of our obligations, our common values, and questions the very ability of the international community to react timely and effectively to the violations of the core human rights documents. Meanwhile, Azerbaijan continues its allegations against Armenia.

One of them is the alleged use of landmines by Armenia. Any such statement coming from a country that itself has not acceded to anti-personal mine ban convention sounds nothing but pure propaganda. Azerbaijan continues this false narrative even after the ICJ has twice unanimously rejected its claims against Armenia on a purported use of landmines.

Armenia provided Azerbaijan with all maps of the minefields at its disposal. This humanitarian gesture was not reciprocated by Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan claimed that it would repatriate the PoWs in exchange for the maps of the landmines. After receiving the maps, Azerbaijan conveniently forgot about that promise. In the same manner, it refuses to implement other obligations and commitments. Azerbaijan announced an amnesty for all those who participated in the war against Nagorno Karabakh, conveniently putting to rest even a theoretical possibility of accountability for those who committed war crimes.

There are videos posted on social networks which show extrajudicial executions, including decapitation of civilians, torture, other types of ill-treatment, mutilation, committed by the armed forces of Azerbaijan. The faces of perpetrators were not covered: some of them were rewarded by the state.

Thank you.

MFA RA
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