Minister: Impunity for past crimes paves the way for new atrocities

ArmInfo.Since the Velvet Revolution of 2018, Armenia has embarked on an ambitious reform program with renewed determination, making significant progress in  promoting a culture of rule of law, preventing crime and improving  the legal framework for criminal justice.

RA Minister of Justice Rustam Badasyan stated this at the 14th UN Congress on Crime  Prevention and Criminal Justice, held in Kyoto, Japan from March 5 to March 11.

According to him, quoted by the press service of the department, the  main goal of the reforms is to ensure the independence of the  judiciary and strengthen public confidence in the system through the  introduction of balanced mechanisms for checking the behavior of  judges and other tools. Talking about another priority of the  government's agenda - the fight against corruption, the RA Minister  of Justice presented the institutional solutions envisaged by the  Strategy aimed at prevention, investigation and education. He also  touched upon the reform of criminal justice, noting that they are  focused on a person, a humane approach, which is reflected in the new  draft of the Criminal Procedure Code. The minister singled out the  fight against criminals as a key area of the fight against crime, due  to the public demand to eliminate the negative influence of the  criminal subculture and the legislative changes introduced for this  purpose.  Rustam Badasyan touched upon the topic of hatred, noting  that this issue is relevant for Armenia, since the Armenian people  throughout their history have been discriminated against and  persecuted on the basis of hatred and genocide.

"In this context, the Armenian delegation initiated the inclusion of  a separate paragraph on hate crimes in the Kyoto Declaration," Rustam  Badasyan said, stressing that hate crimes are the first step that can  lead to serious crimes against humanity, including war crimes, ethnic  cleansing. "I think that impunity for past crimes, their  justification and denial pave the way for renewed violence and new  atrocities," he said, citing the example of the Turkish-Azerbaijani  aggression in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone in September 2020,  participation in hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh mercenaries from  Libya and Syria. The minister noted that the reasons for the first  war in Nagorno-Karabakh in the early 1990s were caused by hatred of  Armenians, discrimination and denial of basic human rights. "The  anti-Armenian policy of Azerbaijan, pursued for decades, found the  most inhuman expression during the recent aggression against the  people of Artsakh, which was accompanied by crimes against humanity.

One of the most striking examples of such crimes is the use of  cluster munitions against the civilian population, the destruction of  the Armenian cultural heritage and the use of banned phosphorus  weapons, which caused enormous damage to the population and the  environment, "the Armenian minister said, citing Azerbaijan's attempt  to grossly violate The UN Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of  War, refusing to return Armenian prisoners of war and other  prisoners, including women.  "The recruitment of foreign terrorists  by Turkey, their subsequent deployment in the ranks of the Armed  Forces of Azerbaijan to conduct hostilities against Artsakh is  another serious crime committed by Azerbaijan and Turkey, which is a  gross violation of all international norms. Numerous evidence and  sources show that Turkey is helping to increase the spread of the  terrorist threat in our region. Therefore, we believe that the  international community should unite to counter this threat, bring to  justice the supporters and perpetrators of this crime, "Rustam  Badasyan said.