UN Committee urges Armenia to address issue raised by Western Azerbaijan Community
Abbas Ganbay
Read moreThe UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights has demanded that Armenia address the issues raised by the Western Azerbaijan Community, Azernews reports.
The statement says that the Western Azerbaijan Community submitted an extensive parallel report to the UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights of Armenia regarding the fourth periodic report on the implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. In addition, community representative Kamal Jafarov participated in the committee meeting. In the aforementioned parallel report, the Community reported on Armenia's violation of the Covenant and other international human rights conventions through the expulsion of Azerbaijanis living there and called on the Committee to take urgent measures to remedy the human rights violations.
The Committee had recently published its final conclusions and recommendations on Armenia's implementation of the Covenant. The many comments made by the community, in particular, the issues raised by Armenia regarding discrimination, violation of the rights of national minorities, violation of cultural rights, and failure to fulfill its obligations to protect Azerbaijan's cultural heritage and its indifferent approach to its obligations regarding the rights of refugees were reflected in the Committee's final document.
The Committee called upon Armenia to register cultural and religious monuments belonging to national minorities and currently threatened with disappearance, to take measures to protect them by allocating the necessary amount of financial resources and other appropriate measures.
The Committee also stated that Armenian legislation and practice violated the rights of national minorities and refugees and demanded that Armenia take the necessary measures to remedy the situation in that sphere.
Reflection of the issues raised by the Western Azerbaijan Community in the Committee's document is an important step towards restoring the rights of Azerbaijanis expelled from Armenia, protected by international conventions. The Community will continue its efforts in this direction.
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