BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 1. Permanent Representative of the Republic of Azerbaijan Tofig Musayev made statement at the plenary meeting of the seventy-ninth session of the United Nations General Assembly, Trend reports, citing the Permanent Representative.
"This year marks two decades since the General Assembly committed to the responsibility to protect. This concept was reflected more specifically much earlier as part of States’ obligations under international human rights law and international humanitarian law. However, as the Secretary-General described in his report (A/79/875-S/2025/248), the respect for these obligations have significantly declined over the years and the promise of an end to atrocity crimes remains unfulfilled", Musayev said.
He emphasized that political will is essential to uphold international law, prosecute perpetrators, and provide reparations to victims.
"The topic under discussion is of particular importance for my country. In the late 1980s Azerbaijan hosted nearly 300,000 refugees. Many were killed or maimed during the expulsion.
Impunity for these acts has led to more widespread atrocities committed in the course of the aggression against Azerbaijan since the early 1990s, resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians, massive ethnic cleansing, the extensive destruction, cultural erasure and the severe damage to the natural environment and resources.
Despite the end of the conflict and the progress achieved in advancing the peace agenda, the refugees are arbitrarily denied access to their homeland, while the return of the internally displaced population and reconstruction efforts are slowed down by the serios threat of landmines and explosive remnants of war, which continue to maim and claim innocent lives," he noted.
Musayev added that so far, 179 remains have been recovered from 25 mass graves in liberated territories. Nearly 4,000 Azerbaijani citizens are still missing.
He stressed the need for international support in humanitarian demining and insisted that atrocity claims be based on verified facts. The abuse of international mandates for political propaganda must not be tolerated.
"Azerbaijan is firm in its determination to further contribute to strengthening the prevention and protection architecture, as well as to ensuring accountability in line with the relevant obligations under international law and the objectives of the responsibility to protect," he said.