We note with satisfaction that the final observations of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination regarding the fulfillment of the obligations undertaken by Azerbaijan under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination include the cases of gross human rights violations committed by Azerbaijan during and after the aggression against Artsakh in 2020,  Gegham Stepanyan, the Human Rights Defender of Artsakh states. 

“The Committee is concerned about the incitement of racial hatred and the promotion of racist stereotypes against Armenians of nationality and origin, including by Azerbaijani government officials, as well as the lack of proper investigation, are the best evidence that discriminatory policies are implemented in Azerbaijan at the state level.

All other cases pointed out by the Committee, gross violations of the human rights of Armenian prisoners of war and civilians by the Azerbaijani armed forces, including extrajudicial killings, torture, ill-treatment, and arbitrary detention, as well as the destruction of Armenian cultural and religious heritage, are carried out in accordance with the discriminatory state policy of Azerbaijan and as a continuation of it.

The observations presented by the committee are part of the systematic and large-scale discriminatory policy of Azerbaijan against the people of Artsakh for decades. The implementation of the discriminatory policy of Azerbaijan at the state level proves that the path chosen by the people of Artsakh and the construction of independent statehood has no alternative. We are sure that the international recognition of Artsakh has matured as a manifestation of the fulfillment of the obligation assumed by the international community regarding the use of effective measures aimed at preventing gross violations of human rights.”