Baku, Azerbaijan, June 14
By Elmira Tariverdiyeva - Trend:
Ensuring the protection and promotion of human rights has become one of the priorities of Azerbaijan's state policy, said Mahmud Mammadguliyev, Azerbaijani deputy foreign minister.
Mammadguliyev said legislative and juridical authorities had undertaken relevant steps in that regard.
He addressed the meeting of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, said the Council's message posted on its website.
Azerbaijan attached particular importance to cooperation with the Human Rights Council, he said.
"Azerbaijan closely cooperated with the United Nations human rights treaty bodies, regularly submitting reports on measures taken to implement the rights and freedoms stipulated in the relevant international instruments," said the deputy minister.
He added Azerbaijan also attached importance to the mechanism of the Universal Periodic Review, to which it had voluntarily submitted a mid-term report.
"Growing intolerance was one of the negative trends of the contemporary world," said Mammadguliyev. "Azerbaijan, located at the crossroads of the East and the West, acted as an intercultural bridge between civilizations."
The 7th Global Forum of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) had taken place in Baku recently, adopting the Baku Declaration, which would serve as a guideline for states and international organizations in the promotion of intercultural dialogue and multiculturalism, noted the deputy minister.
He added that the establishment and successful functioning of the State Agency for Services to Citizens and Social Innovations helped promote good governance and fight against corruption.
Mammadguliyev said the ongoing armed conflict in and around the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan had included ethnic cleansing by Armenia of more than one million Azerbaijanis living in those occupied territories.
"As a result, Azerbaijan hosted one of the largest communities of internally displaced persons and refugees in the world per capita," he noted and added that the conflict could be resolved only by ensuring full respect to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan within its internationally recognized borders.
The Human Rights Council and its special mechanisms should play an increased role in the restoration of the violated human rights of Azerbaijani internally displaced persons, said the deputy minister.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.