On February 27-28, meeting of the high-level segment of the 34th session of the UN Human RIghts Council was held in Geneva, during which statements were delivered by Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary-General, Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Peter Thomson, President of the UN General Assembly, foreign ministers and deputy foreign ministers of numerous countries, heads of international organizations.

The delegation of the Republic of Armenia was headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Ashot Hovakimyan, who in his speech touched upon the steps being undertaken in Armenia aimed at protection and promotion of human rights, in this context noting the established cooperation with the UN Treaty bodies and the Universal Periodic Review /UPR/ mechanism.

Deputy Minister talked also about the upcoming elections to be held within the framework of the new Constitution and new Electoral Code. He noted that the new Code, alongside with other changes, envisages an increased quota for female candidates, as well as, for the first time, seats in the National Assembly allocated for national and ethnic minorities.

Deputy Foreign Minister spoke of regular violations by Azerbaijan of the international humanitarian law and the human rights, as well as hateful and militaristic rhetoric of the authorities of Azerbaijan. According to Deputy Foreign Minister, the above-mentioned leads to massive and gross violations of human rights, as it was the case in the aftermath of military aggression unleashed by Azerbaijan in April 2016. Deputy Minister Hovakimyan stressed the importance of fighting against the phenomena of criminal persecution by Azerbaijan of those journalists and parliamentarians who have visited Nagorno Karabakh.

In his speech, Deputy Foreign Minister touched upon the steps being undertaken by Armenia within the UN towards prevention of genocides, recalling the Resolution on the Prevention of Genocide, initiated by Armenia and adopted by the UN Human Rights Council in 2015 as well as the UN General Assembly Resolution which established December 9 as an International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of this Crime.

Deputy Foreign Minister Hovakimyan also spoke about twenty thousand Syrian-Armenians who have found refuge in Armenia in the aftermath of the Syrian crisis and in this context reaffirmed Armenia’s readiness to provide humanitarian aid to war-affected Syrian population who risk deportation.

In framework of the working visit to Geneva Deputy Minister Ashot Hovakimyan had a meeting with Alexandros Zenon, Deputy Foreign Minister of Cyprus. The sides discussed the issues related to cooperation of the two countries within international organisations.

Meetings were held also with the candidates submitted by Ethiopia and the United Kingdom for the post of the Director-General of the World Health Organization /WHO/.