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The concluding observations of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination include cases of gross human rights violations committed by Azerbaijan during the aggression against Artsakh in 2020 and beyond, Artsakh’s Human Rights Defender (Ombudsman) Gegham Stepanyan said on Wednesday.

“We note with satisfaction that the concluding observations of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on the fulfillment of the obligations undertaken by Azerbaijan under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination include cases of gross human rights violations committed by Azerbaijan during the aggression against Artsakh in 2020 and beyond,” he said in a statement.

“Concerns voiced by the Committee regarding the incitement of racial hatred and propagation of racist stereotypes against persons of Armenian national or ethnic origin, including by Azerbaijani government officials, as well as the lack of proper investigation, are the best evidence that discriminatory policies in Azerbaijan are implemented at the state level.

“All the other cases pointed out by the Committee, such as grave human rights violations committed by the Azerbaijani military forces against prisoners of war and civilians, including extrajudicial killings, torture, ill-treatment, and arbitrary detentions, as well as the destruction of Armenian cultural and religious heritage are carried out in accordance with and in furtherance of the discriminatory state policy of Azerbaijan.

“The observations presented by the Committee are part of the systematic and large-scale discriminatory policy of Azerbaijan against the people of Artsakh pursued for decades. The implementation of the discriminatory policy of Azerbaijan at the state level indicates that the path chosen by the people of Artsakh and the independent state-building have no alternative. We believe that the international recognition of Artsakh has matured as manifestation of fulfillment of the international community’s obligation to take effective measures to prevent gross human rights violations,” reads the statement.