Ararat Mirzoyan: There cannot be any hierarchies of suffering based  on geopolitical considerations and interests.

ArmInfo. On February 28, Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan, who was in Geneva, participated in the UN Human Rights Council 52nd Session and delivered remarks.

As the press service of the RA MFA reports, in his speech, Minister  Mirzoyan, particularly noted:  "Mr. President, Distinguished  colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen, Armenia congratulates the newly  elected Bureau of the Human Rights Council under the Presidency of  H.E. Mr.  Vaclav Balek. We would like to extend best wishes of  success to H.E. Mr. Volker Turk, as this is his first Council session  in the capacity of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Armenia reiterates its unwavering commitment to the protection and  promotion of human rights. This year again, Armenia received the  highest rankings in the region by the World Press Freedom Index and  the Democracy Index of the Economist Intelligence Unit. 

As a member of the HRC, including at its Bureau in 2022, Armenia  strived to make a meaningful contribution to the international  efforts to promote and protect human rights worldwide. I would like  to particularly emphasize Armenia's contribution to international  efforts on the prevention of genocide. We thank each and every state  that supported the consensual adoption of the HRC resolutions on the  Prevention of Genocide put forward by Armenia in 2022.  In 2023 we  mark the 75th anniversary of the Convention on the Prevention and  Punishment of the Crime of Genocide - the first human rights treaty  adopted by the General Assembly. It was followed by the adoption of  the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on the next day. There was  no coincidence in such a succession, as it was the aftermath of the  bloodiest and most violent war in the history of humanity. Those two  documents laid the solid foundation for the human rights architecture  of the United Nations.

Mr. President, The UN Secretary-General has recently assessed that  "we are facing the gravest levels of geopolitical division and  mistrust in generations". 2022 was a challenging year for the Human  Rights Council as well.  As the High Commissioner recently put it, in  spite of geopolitical differences the Council should be the place  where we come together to protect our shared human rights values and  our shared humanity. We concur with him that the greatest challenge  of the human rights system has been to ensure equal attention to the  protection of the rights of all.

We believe that the protection of the human rights of the people of  Nagorno-Karabakh has been continuously overlooked. While we can  appreciate the gravity of the situation elsewhere because of other  conflicts and crises, there cannot be any hierarchies of suffering  based on geopolitical considerations and interests.

Against all odds, the people of Nagorno-Karabakh have been striving  to exercise their human rights freely. This determination has not  changed even after devastating repetitive waves of repression and  aggression of Azerbaijan that killed thousands of people and ruined  hundreds of towns and villages, civilian infrastructure, cultural and  religious heritage. The international community, however, remained  largely inactive as Azerbaijan's appetite was emboldened by impunity.  The latter, then, attacked and occupied the sovereign territories of  the Republic of Armenia.

In the atmosphere of such total impunity, Azerbaijan continues to  breach principles of the international human rights law and  international humanitarian law. It has been for around 80 days that  Azerbaijan blocked the Lachin Corridor, the only road connecting  Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia and the outer world. Azerbaijan has also  disrupted the electricity and is regularly cutting the gas supply. As  a result, the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh are on the verge of a  humanitarian catastrophe. Meanwhile, Azerbaijan announced at the  highest level that it can lift the blockade for all those who want to  leave Nagorno-Karabakh. It is a creeping ethnic cleansing in making.

In this context, I would like to underline that on 22 February the  International Court of Justice issued a legally binding provisional  measure against Azerbaijan in the proceedings brought by Armenia  against it, while unanimously rejecting Azerbaijan's requests made in  the parallel proceedings with respect to alleged laying of mines by  Armenia. In the mentioned order, the Court has found that there is an  imminent risk of irreparable harm to Armenians' rights under the  Convention for Elimination of Racial Discrimination and ordered  Azerbaijan to take all necessary measures to ensure unimpeded  movement of persons, vehicles and cargo along the Lachin Corridor in  both directions. The ICJ provisional measures are legally binding,  however, thus far Azerbaijan failed to lift the blockade of the  Lachin corridor.  Azerbaijan commits this crime amid the wide and  truly global demand to open the Lachin Corridor, including by the UN  Secretary-General and the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

In the same manner, Azerbaijan has failed to investigate the  extrajudicial executions, torture, mutilation and desecration of the  bodies of dead Armenian soldiers, including women, as was  specifically called upon by the UN Special Procedure Mandate Holders.  The UN Human Rights experts further emphasized that they still  anticipate from Azerbaijan "information on the factual and legal  reasons for the continued detention of the Prisoners of War after the  cessation of hostilities, and the measures taken to inform families  of the disappeared about their fate and the exact whereabouts."

Let me conclude, Mr President, by expressing Armenia's firm  conviction that the deployment of the UN interagency mission to the  Lachin Corridor and Nagorno-Karabakh is the bare minimum that the  international community can do in these circumstances. The UN is  bestowed with a universal mandate and should enjoy unconditional and  unimpeded access to people in need. The UN human rights machinery  should be utilized for saving lives, extending the necessary  humanitarian assistance and protecting the human rights of the people  concerned. The world needs positive and successful cases of the  application of international mechanisms, the ones that they were  created and mandated for. The international system cannot afford to  sustain yet another failure.  And I thank you."