August 9 is the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, established by the United Nations General Assembly.
On December 23, 1994, through its Resolution 49/214, the UN designated August 9 as the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, with the aim of protecting their rights and safeguarding them from discrimination.
The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, adopted on September 13, 2007, states that both the physical extermination of peoples and their removal from indigenous lands inevitably violate their fundamental rights and their opportunity to develop in accordance with their interests.
Article 8 of the UN Declaration prohibits acts of assimilation and the destruction of cultural heritage, condemning any attempt to deprive peoples of their ethnic identity and any form of discrimination— which Azerbaijan is currently doing against the people of Artsakh at the highest state level.
Many formulations in the UN Declaration affirm the right of indigenous peoples to live in accordance with their cultural traditions and emphasize the right to self-determination, which allows peoples to freely determine their political status and ensure their cultural, social, and economic development. Although declarations do not have binding legal force, it is important to highlight that Azerbaijan abstained from voting on the adoption of the above-mentioned declaration, thereby expressing its factual denialist stance toward the rights of indigenous peoples.
The Human Rights Union of Nagorno-Karabakh Refugees calls on the international community to respect and protect the fundamental rights of the people of Artsakh, who left their indigenous lands as a result of Azerbaijan’s war crimes. The Union notes that the exodus of Armenians from Artsakh was the outcome of Azerbaijan’s long-standing state genocidal policy, and that the destruction and appropriation of the millennia cultural heritage—evidence of the indigenous presence of the people of Artsakh—has been a central pillar of that policy, which hasn’t stopped to this day.
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It should be emphasized that since 2020, numerous international and national organizations have documented more than 220 cases of destruction, appropriation, and distortion of Nagorno-Karabakh’s cultural heritage. Through the principles of UNESCO, this is a devastating impoverishment of the world’s cultural diversity and an attack on the heritage of all peoples.
Azerbaijan’s policy of denying the historical rights of Armenian people, forcibly displacing them from their indigenous homeland, denying their property rights, and falsifying historical facts must receive a firm condemnation from the international community, as this policy with its deep essence constitutes a manifestation of genocide, racial discrimination, and cultural intolerance—directly contradicting the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law.
The Human Rights Union of Nagorno-Karabakh Refugees calls on the international community to defend the rights of the people of Artsakh and future generations, to stop the destruction of cultural heritage through international pressure, and to ensure the full realization of the right of return for the people of Nagorno-Karabakh, with the restoration of all their rights.
Human Rights Union of Nagorno-Karabakh Refugees
