On 24 February 2025, Deputy Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Elnur Mammadov delivered a statement at the High-level Segment during the 56th Session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

AZERTAC presents major points of the statement, including a reply to the claims raised by the Foreign Minister of Armenia:

• Over the past year, Azerbaijan and Armenia have registered a significant progress in the normalization process through direct bilateral negotiations, in particular with respect to drafting a bilateral peace agreement, and the delimitation and demarcation of the state border. At this point we expect Armenia to eliminate the key barrier in the normalization process which is to legally abandon territorial claims against Azerbaijan through the constitutional amendments.

• The post-conflict rehabilitation requires the eradication of all negative consequences of the conflict which includes bringing suspected perpetrators of atrocious crimes to justice. This is not only the right, but an obligation of Azerbaijan under international law to hold to account those suspected of having committed war crimes. We have ensured and will continue to ensure all the procedural rights of those accused in accordance with the international standards of due process, and justice will be served.

• Speaking of the crimes committed during the war, it is of vital importance to shed light on the fate of about 4000 citizens of Azerbaijan who went missing as a result of the conflict and to end the continuing suffering of their families. We call on the relevant UN bodies and mechanisms to keep this issue high on their agenda and demand full cooperation from Armenia in order to bring clarity to the fate and whereabouts of these people.

• Another pressing issue is to ensure the safe and dignified return of more than 250,000 Azerbaijanis expelled from Armenia during the early years of the conflict who remain deprived of their ancestral homeland in blatant violation of international human rights law. The calls of the Western Azerbaijan Community, once constituting the largest national minority in Armenia, to start a dialogue on the facilitation of their peaceful return remain disregarded and often deliberately misinterpreted by the Armenian Government as a territorial claim by Azerbaijan. This is an issue of concern for us that requires due consideration by the relevant UN mechanisms.

• It is noteworthy that Azerbaijan has engaged in large-scale post-conflict reconstruction efforts to ensure the right of hundreds of thousands of internally displaced Azerbaijanis to a safe and dignified return to the formerly occupied territories. Azerbaijan has developed and implemented the program of “Great Return”, as a result of which several hundred families have already returned to their homeland.

• Regrettably, the massive contamination of territories of Azerbaijan with landmines and other explosive devices remains a significant obstacle to the smooth progress of our reconstruction efforts. Since the end of the conflict in 2020, up to 400 individuals, among them civilians have fallen victim to landmines. We reiterate our call for increased international support to humanitarian mine action capacity, and address the negative impact of mines on enjoyment of human rights, and rehabilitation of mine victims.