Statement in Response to Ivan Šimonović, UN Assistant Secretary General for Human Rights delivered by Ambassador Arman Kirakossian at the 1107th Meeting of the OSCE Permanent Counci

07 July, 2016

Mr. Chairman,

We warmly welcome distinguished Ivan Šimonović, UN Assistant Secretary General for Human Rights and thank him for outlining the activities of the United Nations in human rights and views on closer interaction between our organizations.
We are confident that there is considerable and untapped potential for strengthening cooperation between the United Nations and the OSCE in the sphere of protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Mr. Šimonovic,

Protracted conflicts in the OSCE area and the current security crisis indicate the need to mainstream efforts of our Organizations in protecting the human rights of people living in conflict zones. We fully share your assessment that deliberate targeting of civilians may constitute a war crime, and could amount to a crime against humanity if widespread or systematic. In this regard I would like to refer to the atrocities against civilians, committed during the last large-scale military offensive of Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh. Another repercussion of these atrocities and indicriminate shelling was displacement of the population of Talish and Mataghis villages of Nagorno-Karabakh. These grave human rights violations along with various statements of Azerbaijani militaries denying very fact of existence of civilian population in the Karabakhi side of Line of Contact can be seen as clear indication of true intentions of the Azerbaijani leadership towards entire population of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The OSCE, the UNHCR and the UN special procedures should have unrestricted humanitarian and not-politisiced access to the Nagorno-Karabakh to assess the human rights situation and provide humanitarian assistance.
We firmly believe that solution of the protracted conflicts in the OSCE area is embedded in full upholding the individual and collective rights of people living in conflict zone, including their inalienable right to define their own future without coercion and use of force.

Mr. Šimonovic,

Taking this opportunity we would like to commend your efforts in addressing grave human rights violations and crimes against humanity in the context of the conflict in Syria and Iraq. The threat to the very existence to ethnic and religious minorities, including Christians and Yazidis in Syria and Iraq is widely recognized by the international community.
In light of the ongoing genocidal actions by the ISIL, Al Nusrah Front in the Middle East, we would like to recall the UN General Assembly decision in September last year, which established December 9th as the International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of this Crime. It is by remembering victims that we also prevent new genocides or their recurrence. This was preceded by adoption of the resolution on the Prevention of Genocide by the UN Human Rights Council in March, 2015.
The prevention of mass atrocities requires more urgency and decisive action. Recently the UN elaborated Framework of Analysis for Atrocity Crimes. In our view this framework can be very useful reference point for all OSCE actors involved in prevention. To this end, we value close interaction of the CPC with the UN General Secretary's Adviser on Genocide Prevention.
Finally, we would like to wish you every success in your endeavours.

Thank you.

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