Armenia / UN news

[Hovik]

UN CONTINUES TO HELP ARMENIA

A1+
| 14:46:57 | 30-11-2005 | Official |

Today RA Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan received the UN permanent
coordinator to Armenia, permanent representative of the UN Development
Program in Armenia Mrs. Consuelo Vidal.

The Prime Minister highly appreciated the activity of the UN office
in Armenia since winning independence. Mrs. Consuelo Vidal in her turn
expressed her content with the level of cooperation with our country,
and mentioned that at present her office holds discussions with the
corresponding structures to clear the main directions of cooperation
to be realized in 20606.

According to her, next year the aid of the UN Development Program will
be directed to the fields of combating poverty, combating corruption,
as well as assisting the economy of regions.

As for working out the strategy of combating poverty, according to
the Andranik Margaryan, the process which started in Armenia in 2000
with the assistance of the international organizations finished in
August 2003 with the ratification of the "RA Strategic Program of
Combating Poverty" by the RA Government.

During the meeting Mrs. Consuelo Vidal handed the Prime Minister the
2005 national report of Armenia made by the UN Armenian office and
the RA Government and invited him to participate in the presentation
of the report in December.

[maral_m79]

U.N. Sub-Commission Recognize Armenian Genocide 1985

For the Full UN Whitaker Report on Genocide, 1985




24. Toynbee stated that the distinguishing characteristics of the twentieth century in evolving the development of genocide "are that it is committed in cold blood by the deliberate fiat of holders of despotic political power, and that the perpetrators of genocide employ all the resources of present-day technology and organization to make their planned massacres systematic and complete". (11) The Nazi aberration has unfortunately not been the only case of genocide in the twentieth century. Among other examples which can be cited as qualifying are the German massacre of Hereros in 1904, (12) the Ottoman massacre of Armenians in 1915-1916, (13) the Ukrainian pogrom of Jews in 1919, (14) the Tutsi massacre of Hutu in Burundi in 1965 and 1972, (15) the Paraguayan massacre of Ache Indians prior to 1974, (16) the Khmer Rouge massacre in Kampuchea between 1975 and 1978, (17) and the contemporary Iranian killings of Baha'is. (18) Apartheid is considered separately in paragraphs 43-46 below. A number of other cases may be suggested. It could seem pedantic to argue that some terrible mass-killings are legalistically not genocide, but on the other hand it could be counter-productive to devalue genocide through over-diluting its definition.

--------- Notes --------

11. Arnold Toynee, Experiences (London, Oxford University Press, 1969).

12. General von Trotha issued an extermination order; water-holes were poisoned and the African peace emissaries were shot. In all, three quarters of the Herero Africans were killed by the Germans then colonizing present-day Namibia, and the Hereros were reduced from 80,000 to some 15,000 starving refugees. See P. Fraenk, The Namibians (London, Minority Rights Group, 1985).

13. At least 1 million, and possibly well over half of the Armenian population, are reliably estimated to have been killed or death marched by independent authorities and eye-witnesses. This is corroborated by reports in United States, German and British archives and of contemporary diplomats in the Ottoman Empire, including those of its ally Germany. The German Ambassador, Wangenheim, for example, on 7 July 1915 wrote "the government is indeed pursuing its goal of exterminating the Armenian race in the Ottoman Empire" (Wilhelmstrasse archives). Though the successor Turkish Government helped to institute trials of a few of those responsible for the massacres at which they were found guilty, the present official Turkish contention is that genocide did not take place although there were many casualties and dispersals in the fighting, and that all the evidence to the contrary is forged. See, inter alia, Viscount Bryce and A. Toynbee, The Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire 1915-16 (London, HMSO, 1916): G. Chaliand and Y. Ternon, Genocide des Armeniens (Brussels, Complexe, 1980); H. Morgenthau, Ambassador Morgenthau's Story (New York, Doubleday, 1918); J. Lepsius, Deutschland und Armenien (Potsdam, 1921: shortly to be published in French by Fayard, Paris); R.G. Hovanissian, Armenia on the Road to Independence (Berkeley, University of California, 1967); Permanent People's Tribunal, A Crime of Silence (London, Zed Press, 1985); K. Gurun, Le Dossier Armenien (Ankara, Turkish Historical society, 1983); B. Simsir and others, Armenians in the Ottoman Empire (Istanbul, Bogazici University Press, 1984); T. Ataov, A Brief Glance at the "Armenian Question" (Ankara, University Press, 1984); V. Goekjian, The Turks before the Court of History (New Jersey, Rosekeer Press, 1984); Commission of the Churches on International Affairs, Armenia, the Continuing Tragedy (Geneva, World Council of Churches, 1984); Foreign Policy Institute, The Armenian Issue (Ankara, F.P.I., 1982).

14. Between 100,000 - 250,000 Jews were killed in 2,000 pogroms by Whites, Cossacks and Ukrainian nationalists. See Z. Katz ed., Handbook of Major Soviet Nationalities (New York, Free Press, 1975), p.362; A. Sachar, A History of the Jews (New York, Knopf, 1967).

15. The Tutsi minority government first liquidated the Hutu leadership in 1965, and then slaughtered between 100,000 and 300,000 Hutu in 1972. See Rene Lemarchand, Selective Genocide in Burundi (London, Minority Rights Group, 1974) and Leo Kuper, The Pity of it All (London, Duckworth, 1977).

16. In 1974 the International League for the Rights of Man together with the Inter-American Association for Democracy and Freedom, charging the Government of Paraguay with complicity in genocide against the Ache (Guayaki Indians), alleged that the latter had been enslaved, tortured and massacred; that food and medicine had been denied them; and their children removed and sold. See Norman Lewis and others in Richard Arens ed., Genocide in Paraguay (Philadelphia, Temple University Press, 1976); and R. Arens "The Ache of Paraguay" in J. Porter, Genocide and Human Rights (op.cit.).



17. It is estimated that at least 2 million people were killed by Pol Pot's Kher Rouge government of Democratic Kampuchea, out of a total population of 7 million. Even under the most restricted definition, this constituted genocide, since the victims included target groups such as the Chams (an Islamic minority) and the Buddhist monks. See Izvestia, 2 November 1978; F. Ponchaud, Cambodia Year Zero (London, Penguin Books, 1978); W. Shawcross, Sideshow; Kissinger, Nixon and the Destruction of Cambodia (New York, Simon and Schuster, 1979); V. Can and others, Kampuchea Dossier: The Dark Years (Hanoi, Viet Nam Courier, 1979); D. Hawk, The Cambodia Documentation Commission (New York, Columbia University, 1983); L. Kuper, International Action against Genocide (London, Minority Rights Group, 1984).

18. See evidence presented to United Nations Human Rights Commission and Sub-Commission, 1981-1984, and R. Cooper, The Baha'is of Iran (London, Minority Rights Group, 1985).


UN Whitaker Report on Genocide, 1985, paragraphs 14 to 24, pages 5 to 10

[Gavur]

Armenia Elected Deputy President

A1+
| 20:57:43 | 16-01-2006 | Official |

The first session of the UN Human Rights Committee 62th sitting has
been convened in Geneva. The elections of the Committee officials
have taken place. The permanent representative of the RA to the UN
Geneva office has been unanimously elected the deputy president of
hte Human Rights Committee 62th sitting.

The representative of Peru was elected President of the sitting. The
works of the Committee will resume in March.

[Gavur]

Oskanian concludes his visits at the UN

MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA
----------------------------------------------
PRESS AND INFORMATION DEPARTMENT
375010 Telephone: +37410. 544041 ext 202
Fax: +37410. 562543
Email: [email protected]

https://www.armeniaforeignministry.am

PRESS RELEASE

01-04-2006

Oskanian concludes his visits at the UN

Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian concluded two days of visits with the
UN leadership in New York. On Thursday March 30 and Friday March 31,
Minister Oskanian met with Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the UN,
Jan Eliasson, President of the 60th Session of the General Assembly of
the UN and Kemal Dervis, Administrator of the UN Development Program.

With Secretary General Annan and with GA President Eliasson, Minister
Oskanian spoke about the Nagorno Karabakh resolution process as
well as recent ceasefire violations. He expressed Armenia's serious
concern that the military rhetoric of Azerbaijan's leaders is finding
its expression in an increasingly large number of violations by the
Azerbaijani military along the line of contact.

Armenia's Foreign Minister also discussed UN reforms, and welcomed
the formation of the new Human Rights Council, expressing Armenia's
interest in remaining engaged in human rights issues.

In these meetings, and during his talks with Mr. Dervis of the
UNDP, Minister Oskanian also stressed Armenia's commitment to rural
development. He stressed that the Millennium Challenge Compact,
recently signed with the US Government, will create a momentum
and that the Armenian government is committed to building on this
momentum with a comprehensive plan for rural development that is based
on a public-private partnership which includes Armenia's Diaspora,
Armenia's business community, the Armenian government and international
organizations.

[Gavur]

Azerbaijan Has Got The Right To Assess Democracy In Armenia

International remedial organizations suppose that the membership of Azerbaijan in the UN Human Rights Council is discrediting for that organ.
12.05.2006 GMT+04:00
The UN Human Rights Council consisting of 47 states was formed by the results of three-round elections held in New York. As it is known, Armenia was among those 18 states, which did not collect enough scores, whereas Azerbaijan was elected, though with difficulty. This means that from now on Baku leaders will have the right to evaluate democracy level in countries where things with human rights are much better than in Azerbaijan itself.
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Azerbaijan did not pass in the first round. In the second round 103 states out of 198 voted for that country. Thus, Azerbaijan received three votes more than the required minimum. Armenia lacked just a few votes. According to the ballot, held after the end of elections, Azerbaijan will be present in the Council for 3 years whereas other countries, like Poland or the Check Republic – for only a year. Did Armenia lose much failing in the elections and not getting in the Human Rights Council? It is worth mentioning that the UN Council for Human Rights has inherited almost all of the authority, which the Geneva Commission for Human Rights had before being liquidated on June 16, 2005 at the insistence of the United States and other Western countries. The main complaint against the Commission consisted in the fact that its member countries where far away from democracy. The “cosmetic” reform, which simply changed the name of the organ, did not however solve the main problem. And now, countries that have a very vague idea about human rights, will watch for the protection of human rights in the whole world. The newly created council will regularly analyze human rights reports in certain countries and present its summary to the UN Security Council.

Armenia has twice been elected to the Human Rights Commission. It is noteworthy that membership in the commission allowed to use certain diplomatic mechanisms which sometimes were very useful. Countries against which the world community has claims concerning human rights protection, had to show special attention to Armenia in order to win our support. Very often that support turned to be useful to such great powers as China and Russia. Yerevan in its turn enjoyed Moscow’s and Beijing’s favors. In this sense membership in the commission was really very important. However the fact that this time Armenia was not elected to the reformed UN organ is not a tragedy at all. Moreover, Yerevan was actually ready for possible undesirable results. Finally, it would be really unfair if Armenia was included in the organ three times in a row especially because from now on elections are held by the principle of regional representation. In the Western European region there are many countries, which have never been in the Commission. Everything would be normal if not the news about Azerbaijan’s election to the Council...

The membership of Azerbaijan in the Human Rights Council is of course undesirable for Armenia. Though decisions of that organ are not obligatory, the very fact that Azerbaijan will be assessing state of affairs in Armenia is annoying. It is quite clear that Azerbaijan will not be objective. But in this case more important is the question – do Baku leaders have the moral right to evaluate democracy in other countries when in Azerbaijan the situation with human rights is just deplorable? International remedial organizations give an unambiguously negative answer. Yet before voting the respectable international “Human Rights Watch” organization published the list of countries whose membership in the Council was fully inadmissible. In that list Azerbaijan was the first not only because of the alphabetic order. Azerbaijan is followed by China, Cuba, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Russia. Armenia is of course not included in the list. Thought the leaders of “Human Rights Watch” do not think that in our country things with democracy are ideal, they saw Armenia as a member state of the Human Rights Council.

Displeasure with election results has been expressed also by another influential remedial organization, called “Amnesty International”. Leaders of this organization underlined that among member states of the Council there are those where the situation of human rights is simply catastrophic. Leaders of Moscow Helsinki group announced that in the current composition the Council loses its sense since it is initially discredited by the membership of Russia, China, Azerbaijan and Pakistan. The United States are also indignant at the election results and have even refused to support the Council since the mechanism of its formation has allowed involvement of such countries like Azerbaijan. At the same time, the Ombudsman of Azerbaijan Elmira Suleymanova dares to say that election of Azerbaijan to the Council is the appreciation of high level of democracy in Azerbaijan by the UN. Can we call this anything else but complete nonsense?
«PanARMENIAN.Net» analytical department
! Reproduction in full or in part is prohibited without reference to «PanARMENIAN.Net».

[Gavur]

Oskanyan Opposed The Azeri Deputy Foreign Minister

http://www.a1plus.am/en/?page=issue&iid=40265

[08:23 pm] 21 June, 2006

Minister Oskanian attended and addressed the first session of the newly-formed UN Human Rights Council. The opening ceremony on Monday was attended by UN SG Kofi Annan as well as High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour.

In his statement, on Wednesday, June 21, Armenia’s Minister congratulated the Council on its inaugural meeting and wished the Council well in its mandate to place the third pillar of the UN human rights on a par with the other two peace and security, and development.

The Minister said, “Globalization and the electronic media enhance our knowledge and increase our liability. It is as easy to look into our neighbor’s living room as our own. To hear the screams next door and do nothing will be as difficult as ignoring uproar at home. We are now the first generation who simply cannot afford to do so. And ironically, we are the first generation that is able to afford to systematically, fundamentally address the problems and even the crises. We can muster the time, skills and resources to construct a new pro-active, daring, spirited international system that not only has the moral authority but also the tenacity to protect the powerless.”

The Minister addressed the linkage between human rights and development. He said, “I know that it is only when the preconditions for a full and free life of dignity are in place, only then are markets powerful engines of development, only then is critical infrastructure sustainable, and only then do individuals stand up to demand and protect individual and collective human rights.”

He continued, “In Armenia, we are tackling this greatest challenge through a public-private partnership that will engage the government of Armenia, Armenia’s business community, the international community and individual countries, as well as our generous Diaspora, to embark on eradicating rural poverty through a comprehensive, integrated approach. Our intent is to meet the Millennium Development Goals, and to replace hopelessness and desperation with a sense of self-worth and security.”

In speaking about Armenia’s neighbors and regional security, Minister Oskanian noted that “Armenia has and continues to promote stronger international mechanisms to prevent and eradicate the crime of genocide, and all of its precursors including efforts, too often successful, at not just cleansing a region of its indigenous people, but also erasing their memory. Armenians have survived and gone on to live through each of these attempts. Even today, in the 21st century, we have watched helplessly as the spiritual and cultural markers of our people are decimated.”

He went on to refer to the destruction of the Jugha Cemetery in Nakhichevan, Azerbaijan. “This violation of the memory and spirit of centuries of Armenian existence on lands which are today Azerbaijan’s is cynical and dangerous. These huge, exquisite, unique stone crosses which were both sculpture and tombstone are now gone - 2,000 of these medieval markers were destroyed just a few months ago. The gravemarkers are gone, and Armenian and international fears that Azerbaijan’s authorities might in fact not be serious about peace have been reinforced. After all, their organized, violent, armed response to peaceful calls for self-determination two decades ago, was the first attempt at ethnic cleansing in the soviet space and ignited the conflict which remains unsettled today. This most recent manifestation of organized violence, in a place where no Armenians live today, and far from the Nagorno Karabakh conflict area, tells us that neither Azerbaijan’s methods nor its intent has changed. Such unambivalent, callous demolition of culture and history also destroys trust and peace.”

In speaking about the present state of negotiations with Azerbaijan on the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, the Armenian Foreign Minister said, “If Azerbaijan’s one step forward, one step back approach in the negotiations was simply alarming, their recent, desperate offers of autonomy are concrete examples of a retreat from the letter and spirit of these talks, and clearly not in sync with international trends. Offering autonomy to a people who have for nearly two decades been in control of their lives on their own historic lands is at the very least, self-deception.”

[Hovik]

Joining UN is one of independent Armenia’s major achievements

Joining UN is one of independent Armenia’s major achievements

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “Joining the UN is one of the major achievements of independent Armenia. Becoming a UN member in 1992, Armenia was offered the possibility to become a real participant of the ongoing processes in the world, make its contribution to the international cooperation, peace and security via participation in summits and conferences held under the UN aegis. Accepting the common human values. Human rights protection and democracy principles as an inseparable part of the state ideology, Armenia is actively cooperating with many international structures,” says the statement of the RA Foreign Ministry issued over the 15th anniversary of Armenia’s membership in the UN.

“After the devastating earthquake in 1988 the UN humanitarian mission arrived in Armenia. It was an unknown organization for many at that time. Missions of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, UNICEF, UNDP have been established in the republic several years later. It would be extremely hard to implement plenty of programs without the UN support. Today, marking the 15th anniversary of our membership in the organization we are convinced that Armenia is pacing on the path towards democracy consolidation, civil society formation, rule of law and economic development,” the document says.