Azerbaijani delegation attend UNHCR 8th High Meeting on Dialogue on Root Causes of Forced Displacement

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Mətbuat xidmətinin məlumatı 17 December, 2015

A delegation led by Azerbaijani Deputy Prime Minister, Chairman of the State Committee for Refugees and IDP Affairs Ali Hasanov, as well as Chief of the State Migration Service Firudin Nabiyev represent Azerbaijan at the UNHCR 8th High Meeting on Dialogue on Root Causes of Forced Displacement in Geneva. Founded in 2007, the Dialogue’s goal is to organize discussions of the UNHCR, member countries and other partners on global protection issues. In his opening remarks, UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres spoke of the hard plight of the refugees and IDPs over the world today. Participants of the plenary meetings have touched numerous questions concerning solutions to the refugee problems, their social plight, involvement of the refugee children to education and other issues. Deputy Prime Minister, Chairman of the State Committee for Refugees and IDP Affairs Ali Hasanov highlighted the plight of the Azerbaijani refugees and IDPs who have lost their homelands as a result of Armenian aggression. Ali Hasanov also brought to the attention of the High Meeting participants the continuation of 20-year long occupation of the 20 percent of Azerbaijani territories by Armenia, ignorance by the Armenian side the four resolutions of the UN Security Council. Text of the speech of Mr. Ali Hasanov, Deputy Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Republic at the next 8th high-level meeting of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees for Dialogue on Protection Tasks on the subject of Understanding and Solving the Root Causes of Displacement Dear Mr. Chairman, Dear Mr. High Commissioner, Ladies and gentlemen. Firstly, allow me to express my sincere gratitude to the High Commissioner Mr. Antonio Guterres for his initiative to dedicate the distinguished event held today to discussion of a quite important issue and inviting also Azerbaijan to this event. The emergency events taking place in various regions of the world in recent years worry us as well. The unprecedented massive migration, the endless suffering of the innocent people made up mostly of women and children en route, the terrifying events that keep deepening and drive humanity to a new tragedy – it is not difficult to imagine what is awaiting us ahead, if these events are not prevented. Further strengthening of cooperation between the states, as well as the respectable international organizations, such as the UNHCR, International Organization for Migration, International Committee of Red Cross and the relevant UN entities for the settlement of the problems of vulnerable people suffering from conflicts is today both essential and urgent. We believe there is a need for improvement of the existing international law concerning the protection of the people forced to leave their permanent residences. Today, we must emphasize the fact that the time has come to consider the development of a legally binding liable document on the basis of the rules and norms reflected in the UN Guiding Principles on IDPs. The military aggression of Armenia against Azerbaijan and occupation of up to 20 percent of our lands have caused forced displacement of people from their native lands. This issue has not found its solution for over 25 years. The ethnic cleansing policy conducted in Armenia and Armenian occupation of the Nagorno Karabakh and adjacent seven regions of Azerbaijan have brought the number of refugees and IDPs in our country to over one million and two hundred thousands. With a population of 9.7 million, Azerbaijan is among the world’s biggest countries with the highest IDP burden per capita. The non-implementation of four UN Security Council resolutions adopted in 1993, as well as the decisions of other respectable international organizations related to the conflict, causes misunderstanding. Armenia tramples the generally accepted norms and principles of international law, changes the physical, demographic and cultural names of the occupied territories, rejects the rights of forcibly forcedly displaced Azerbaijanis to return to their native lands and continues its efforts aimed at the strengthening of the present status-quo. The Armenian Government also abuses misuses the world’s current migration problem and settles the Syrian refugees of Armenian origin in the occupied Azerbaijani territories. Azerbaijani Government has undertaken most of the problems of the displaced people forcibly left their native lands. In the past 20 years, over 6 billion USD has been spent on the social problems of the refugees and IDPs of Azerbaijan and 250 thousand refugees and IDPs have been relocated to 93 newly established modern settlements for temporary residence. The poverty level among people of this particular category has decreased from 75% to 12%. Our achievements in the settlement of IDP problems have been positively assessed by respectable international organizations and countries. Despite the great efforts of the Azerbaijani Government, over 400 000 IDPs continue living in old and unfit public buildings under difficult circumstances up to date. Due to the large and persisting nature of the country’s IDP problem, there is a need for the support of international organizations and donors. Full restoration of the IDPs human rights requires the settlement of the conflict based on international legal norms, in particular sovereignty of states, territorial integrity and the inviolability of internationally recognized borders. Azerbaijan’s position in this regard is quite clear: all Azerbaijani territories must be liberated from occupation and the rights of IDPs to return to their lands in safety and dignity must be ensured. We are hopeful that after the Peace Agreement is achieved, Azerbaijani and Armenian nations will continue to live as earlier in the confident neighbourhood. Taking this opportunity, I would like to express the Azerbaijani Government and my personal views on of the High Commissioner Mr. Antonio Guterres’s achievements during his 10-year activity. I would like to point out that Mr. Guterres has approached the existing problems with high sensitivity and professionalism. Despite the high growth in the number of refugees and IDPs during his term, Mr. Guterres has fulfilled his duties of a High Commissioner in a very capable and decent manner. The primary attention and care for the IDPs problem emerged exactly during Mr. Guterres’ term. On behalf of the Azerbaijani Government and myself I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Mr. Guterres for all these efforts and wish him success in his personal life and future activities. Thank you for your attention. The same day, Deputy Prime Minister, Chairman of the State Committee for Refugees and IDP Affairs Ali Hasanov met with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres. The Meeting will run until December 17.