NKR Foreign Minister Addresses Letter to United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

STEPANAKERT — Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic Karen Mirzoyan sent a letter on October 5 to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra`ad Al Hussein in regard to his statement made at the opening of the 33rd session of the UN Human Rights Council on September 13, where he noted that his “Office has had no access to the conflict situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, including since the events of April 2016”.

Pointing to the absence of any appeal for access to Nagorno Karabakh from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to the authorities of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, the NKR Foreign Minister expressed regret that for more than two decades the Office had not been able to visit the NKR, not even after the Azerbaijani aggression this April.

“In our view, the OHCHR should be able to verify well-documented cases of massive and grave human rights violations and war crimes committed by the Azerbaijani Armed Forces both against Nagorno Karabakh civilian population and its military personnel. We strongly believe that the international community has to react to these crimes in order to prevent their recurrence; otherwise, the impunity enjoyed by perpetrators would encourage further use of force by Azerbaijan against the people of Nagorno Karabakh”, the letter reads.

Assuring that the authorities of Nagorno Karabakh Republic are very open to have a genuine cooperation with the OHCHR with a view of strengthening democratic norms and principles as well as protection of human rights in situations of conflict, the NKR Minister of Foreign Affairs invited the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit Nagorno Karabakh or to dispatch a team in order to make an impartial and objective assessment of the human rights situation and the crimes perpetrated against the people of Nagorno Karabakh in April this year.