Statement by Armenia's Deputy Permanent Representative at the UN Security Council Open debate, entitled 'Peacebuilding and Sustaining Peace: Investment in People to Enhance[...]

Mr. President,

We would like to thank Japan for convening the Open debate on the topic of peacebuilding and sustaining peace. We express our appreciation to the Deputy Secretary-General Ms. Amina Mohammed, the Chair of the Peacebuilding Commission Mr. Muhammad Abdul Muhith and the representative of civil society for their important contributions to today's debate.

The rise of intolerance, hate, racism on ethnic and religious grounds, systematic violations of fundamental human rights, including the right to life, food and health, violence against women and children in various parts of the world are reminders of the crucial need for the international community and the United Nations to scale-up its efforts to prevent and resolve conflicts and sustain peace. Comprehensive and sustainable resolution of conflicts and sustaining peace requires tackling the root causes of the conflicts, in particular the gross violations of human rights and pursue accountability and justice for the past crimes.

Human rights-based, people-centered and inclusive approach is key for effective international cooperation to address the humanitarian and development needs of people affected by conflicts. In this regard the resilience of the UN system to the manipulations aimed at legitimizing the consequences of the use of force and atrocity crimes is crucial for countering misinformation and false narratives, and attempts to impose unilateral solutions in utter disregard to the norms of international law, including international human rights law.

We welcome the Secretary-General's New Agenda for Peace, with a strong emphasis on prevention, addressing violence, upholding human rights and equal and meaningful participation of women in peacebuilding and sustaining peace. As a consistent supporter of strengthening the United Nations prevention toolbox, the Delegation of Armenia would like to stress the need for addressing the risks of genocide and other atrocity crimes, particularly in our part of the world.

Mr. President,

In our region we continue to face attempts to pursue forceful resolution of conflict, instigation of violence and hate, denial of fundamental human rights and violations of the international humanitarian law. For 46 days now, safe and unimpeded passage of people and goods from and to Nagorno-Karabakh through the Lachin corridor continues to be denied, children remain separated from their families, electricity and gas supply are deliberately cut off, schools and kindergartens closed due to the lack of food and food stamps are introduced to address the immediate needs of a besieged population of 120,000 people. The aggressive actions on the ground, war-mongering and hateful statements by the highest leadership of Azerbaijan, encouraging ethnic cleansing and hate crimes leave no doubt of the imminent threat to the physical security of the Armenian population.

The Security Council needs to uphold its responsibility of maintenance of international peace and security and undertake timely and efficient measures to prevent Azerbaijan's attempts to ethnically cleanse Nagorno-Karabakh from its indigenous population and address the risks of atrocity crimes posed by the Azerbaijani Government.

I thank you.