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The Armenian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) organized on Monday a discussion entitled “Are Human Rights Universal?”. During the session, Artsakh Ombudsman Artak Beglaryan who had been invited to participate in the event, delivered remarks, the Armenian delegation reported in a press statement.

“Human Rights are universal, yet we should realize what is the reality. We should acknowledge that the protection of human rights sometimes is not prioritized in the space of the Council of Europe, especially when overcoming the challenges brought by unresolved conflicts,” Beglaryan stressed in his remarks, adding any settlement of a conflict should consider the protection of human rights first.

The Artsakh official next reminded that millions of people living in conflict-affected areas have no access to human rights structures, monitoring, international response and aid bodies. Beglaryan recalled the famous quote by George Orwell that all men are equal, but some men are more equal than others and raised a question what is the reason for that.

Among possible explanations to this the Artsakh Ombudsman pointed to two factors – the lack of will by international community and the resistance of the countries involved in conflicts that try to isolate people living in de-facto free states.