On November 30, deputy foreign minister of Armenia Ashot Hovakimian received the delegation headed by Georgette Gagnon, Director of the Field Operations and Technical Cooperation Division of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

During the meeting, Deputy Foreign Minister Hovakimian presented to the members of delegation Armenia’s approaches with regard to the exclusively peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the efforts of Armenia and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries in that direction.

Ashot Hovakimian underlined that Armenia’s approaches towards human rights protection are based on the principles enshrined in relevant international fundamental documents, such as the principles of universality and interconnectivity of human rights, which means that no one, including the people of Artsakh, cannot be left out from the international human rights protection system.

Touching upon the visit of the delegation headed by Georgette Gagnon to Azerbaijan, Ashot Hovakimian underlined that for many years the Azerbaijani authorities have been speculating on refugee issues for political purposes, whereas they could have used the support provided by appropriate international organizations to create conditions for these people to lead a dignified life. The Deputy Minister then emphasized that the issue of refugees constitutes part of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement package and cannot be considered separately.

Then, Deputy Minister Hovakimian presented to the guests the priorities and activities of Armenia in the human rights sphere.

In response, Ms Gagnon informed that the purpose of their visit to Armenia is to further strengthen the cooperation with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The OHCHR representative highly appreciated the active efforts of Armenia towards protection of human rights on international platforms, in particular, towards prevention of genocides.