GENEVA (PanARMENIAN.Net) — On Wednesday, October 11, representatives of 34 countries issued a joint statement during the 54th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, expressing extreme concern on the dire humanitarian and human rights crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh.
“We are extremely concerned by the dire humanitarian and human rights crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh and the situation of the population who have fled from there in the past weeks,” the statement said.
“According to the report of the UN Mission to the region, nearly the entire ethnic Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh has fled to Armenia – more than 100,000 people. Their report rightly notes the suffering this experience must have caused.
The statement said this massive displacement of ethnic Armenians from their homes stems from Azerbaijan’s military operation launched on September 19th and a nine-month long blockade of the Lachin corridor leading to dire humanitarian conditions.
“We appreciate that High Commissioner [Volker] Turk’s statement of September 26 urged safeguarding the rights of ethnic Armenians, protection of civilians, and observance of international law. We wholly agree that “reported violations of human rights or international humanitarian law require follow-up, including prompt, independent and transparent investigations,” the statement added.
“We believe the appropriate next step is for the OHCHR to closely monitor the situation of human rights in Nagorno-Karabakh, meet refugees and displaced persons and those who remain, and to keep this Council informed. We therefore urge Armenia and Azerbaijan to invite the OHCHR to provide them with such technical assistance as soon as possible.
