Armenian FM: Human rights are status-neutral
Posted on July. 21. 2019
Human rights are not conditioned by status, Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan said in his remarks delivered at the OSCE Informal Ministerial Gathering held under the theme “From past action to future prevention: the OSCE’s niche in fostering stability in Europe and beyond” in High Tatras, Slovakia on Tuesday.
The meeting brought together foreign ministers from over 20 countries and heads of the OSCE institutions, the Armenian Foreign Ministry reported.
The Armenian foreign policy chief considered the selective approach to human rights unacceptable.
“We cannot be selective about human rights. Within the OSCE area, we have conflicts. And we have to learn the method of applying a status-neutral approach to human rights. There are areas in which people are taking effort to promote human rights, to build institution in their own way. They do not have the support as many others do. We cannot approach it in a way that we say we can do it over here and we cannot do it over here. Human rights are status-neutral. That we have to admit, to accept and to find a mechanism in which we spread the support of human rights in every part of the OSCE area.
“And of course, I obviously have in mind also Nagorno-Karabakh (Artskah). Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is about the human being. It is about people. And it is about the existential physical security of that people,” he stressed, highlighting the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs towards the peaceful settlement of the conflict.