HRC 53rd Session: Agenda item 2 – Interactive Dialogue on High Commission annual report, Right of reply - Embassy of Armenia to Switzerland and Permanent Mission of Armenia to the UN office at Geneva

HRC 53rd Session: Agenda item 2 – Interactive Dialogue on High Commission annual report, Right of reply

21 June, 2023

Delivered by Ms. Lilit Toutkhalian, Minister Extraordinary and Envoy Plenipotentiary

Mr. President,

Yesterday, in response to the remarks of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Azerbaijan stated that it hinders the access of the UN missions to Nagorno Karabakh, because, as they claim, it is within Azerbaijan’s sovereign right to do so.

Azerbaijan also justified the blockade of Lachin Corridor based on its own conviction that it is supported by its sovereign right to do so.

In this regard, we have to remind that international human rights obligation cannot be violated invoking sovereignty.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights stipulates unequivocally that “everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms … no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs.”

The 75^th anniversary of the UDHR is as a proper occasion to remind Azerbaijan of its own commitments and obligation. This anniversary also provides an apt opportunity to implement the UDHR’s provisions in real life.

Azerbaijan has impeded the access of the UN humanitarian missions to Nagorno Karabakh and Lachin Corridor to conceal gross violations of human rights that it has committed and keeping its hands free for looming ethnic cleansing it perpetrates.

For over three decades Azerbaijan has been using the notion of sovereignty as a shield to cover its crimes against humanity, such as massacres of the Armenian civil population. The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has expressed its deep concern on the allegations of severe and grave human rights violations committed by the Azerbaijani armed forces against the Armenian prisoners of war and other protected persons, including extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detentions, and torture.

Azerbaijan blatantly violates the precise orders of the International Court of Justice to protect Armenian detainees, to prevent anti-Armenian incitement and promotion of racial hatred, including by its officials and public institutions. The Court has ruled that it must also take necessary measures to prevent and punish acts of vandalism and destruction of the Armenian cultural heritage.

The UN Secretary General explicitly called on Azerbaijan to implement the binding order of the ICJ on ensuring the freedom of movement in Lachin Corridor.

Azerbaijan has been blatantly ignoring these calls and Court rulings. It has also stated at the highest level that international law is not working and the might is the right.

Thank you.

MFA RA
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