On 20 September, the European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy (EAFJD) participated in the Plenary of the OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meetings (HDIM) – Europe’s largest annual human rights conference, held in Warsaw this year.
In her statement the EAFJD representative Heghine Evinyan raised the issue of the isolation of the people of Artsakh/Nagorno Karabakh.
“The unresolved conflict cannot serve as an excuse for the political, economic and social isolation of the people of Artsakh, imposed by the Azerbaijani authorities. Fundamental rights are the same for everyone and do not depend on the status of a country”, stated the EAFJD representative.
“No conflict has been solved in a sustainable way through marginalizing the people who are directly affected by it and without speaking or listening to them. Yet, unfortunately this is exactly what the Azerbaijani authorities have been striving as a matter of principle.
Politicians, foreigners visiting Artsakh are put on the so-called “black list” created by the Azerbaijani authorities and demanded to apologize in writing. There is no relevant document of international law that would justify this approach. Because of Azerbaijani pressure, students can be prevented from participating in education programs in Europe, since they happen to be from Artsakh”, she elaborated.
Referring to international law, to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the UN Covenant on Political and Civil Rights and the UN Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Evinyan emphasized that none of them contain provisions which would limit collective human rights and fundamental freedoms, including social and economic rights based on the status of the country. Therefore as any other people, the people of Artsakh are entitled to engage in international relations, including foreign economic activity. Any allegations pointing at the so called illegal nature of economic and other activities in Artsakh lack international legal basis and aim at marginalizing the population.