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At November 19 sitting of the OSCE PA Autumn Meeting the issues of protection of human rights and minorities’ rights in the zones of conflicts. In this context the member of the RA NA delegation to the OSCE PA Artur Hovhannisyan gave a speech.

“Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is my pleasure to welcome everyone to Yerevan. A few months ago, in Vancouver, when it was being decided that the next Assembly would be held in Armenia, we could not have imagined that we would discuss the issue of protecting the rights of people affected by conflicts in a country where about 100,000 Armenians forcibly displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh would be living for already 2 months. In the previous Meeting, we warned about the real danger of ethnic cleansing by Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh. Of course, statements were made, resolutions adopted, and several decisions made by the international court, but the fact is that right now, if you travel around Armenia, you will meet the same people who, according to the resolutions, statements and even the decisions of the international court, should have been living in their homeland and not become refugees.

Dear colleagues, this is not a complaint against the international community for not preventing ethnic cleansing, but a record that the existing tools are not effective in preventing ethnic cleansing and protecting people from authoritarian regimes. All this should give us a reason to think deeply about having new tools and approaches that will allow us not just to wrangle with texts but to take effective measures with hands-on actions.

The best way to protect human rights is democracy, and the best environment is peace. Therefore, we must promote democracy and build peace together. The Republic of Armenia, offers the countries of the region to move from words to action and presents a concrete program titled “Crossroads of Peace,” which is about building peace that will be not only in the interests of our region but also far beyond it. And I hope that the civilized world will stand by Democracy and Peace,” the deputy noted.