HRC 55th Session: Commemoration of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

Delivered by Ms. Lilit Toutkhalian, Minister Extraordinary and Envoy Plenipotentiary

President,

As we commemorate the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, we would like to remember all those who felt victim of anti-Armenian hatred and intolerance cultivated in Azerbaijan for decades.

The first Armenian massacres of the modern era took place in Azerbaijan in 1988 and 1990 in the cities of Sumgait, Baku and Kirovabad. On the eve of the collapse of the Soviet Union there were half a million Armenians living in Azerbaijan. Today, there are none. They were subjected to identity-based crimes and forced displacement.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner Andrey Sakharov in 1990s and the Special Adviser of the UN Secretary-General just last year alarmed on the risk of genocide against Armenians. These warnings do not happen in a vacuum. They were the reflections of anti-Armenian racial discrimination that has been widely reported by the international community.

The International Court of Justice ordered Azerbaijan to take all necessary measures to prevent the incitement and promotion of racial hatred and discrimination, including by its officials and public institutions, targeted at persons of Armenian national or ethnic origin.

Azerbaijan has yet to comply with this binding order.

Thank you.

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