Your trusted source

People cannot be denied their fundamental human rights, irrespective of the political status of a territory they reside, Human Rights Defender of the Republic of Artsakh Ruben Melikyan stated in Brussels on Thursday at the meeting with representatives of European non-governmental organizations specialized in human rights issues.

In Melikyan’s words, people cannot be deprived of their rights also because “human rights are universal, and there cannot be more or less universal rights for different people,” adding the approach is shared by many partners throughout Europe. 
 
To note, Artsakh Ombudsman is paying visit to Brussels with the support of AGBU – Europe, where he has hold number of meetings with representatives of European structures, EU MEPs and members of the European Human Rights community. 

In his speech Melikyan reflected on the general situation of the human rights in the Nagorno Karabakh Republic (NKR) and presented the findings of Artsakh Ombudsman’s second interim report on atrocities committed by Azerbaijan during the 2016 April war.

Melikyan specifically stressed the need for Europe’s engagement with Artsakh, citing the term “Lack of Europe in Karabakh” to illustrate the fact that the territory is the only place throughout Europe where no international human rights monitoring mechanism is operating. 

“By saying cooperation we do not mean only at the official level but also at the level of civil society. We are open to cooperate with European non-governmental organizations in the sphere of human rights,” Melikyan said, expressing readiness to launch relevant discussions for those kinds of activity in Karabakh.

Speaking of the April war unleashed by Azerbaijan, Melikyan touched upon the humanitarian aspect of the Azerbaijani aggression, rejecting the idea the case is of a merely political nature.

“According to our survey data, security remains the top priority concern for the overwhelming majority of Artsakh population. Thus, April war is about security.  There are many contradictory reports about those events but unfortunately there has been no independent report on what has happened there,” Melikyan stressed

Artsakh Ombudsman’s speech was followed by a question and answer session with the audience.