ՀԱՅԱՍՏԱՆԻ ՀԱՆՐԱՊԵՏՈՒԹՅԱՆ ՏԱՐԱԾՔԱՅԻՆ ԿԱՌԱՎԱՐՄԱՆ ՆԱԽԱՐԱՐՈՒԹՅԱՆ
ՄԻԳՐԱՑԻՈՆ ԳՈՐԾԱԿԱԼՈՒԹՅՈՒՆ
| Engl. | Հցրր. |
MINISTERIAL
MEETING OF STATE PARTIES TO
THE 1951 REFUGEE CONVENTION
SPEECH
OF THE
MINISTER OF TERRITORIAL ADMINISTRATION
OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIAMR. H. ABRAHAMYAN
GENEVA, DECEMBER 12, 2001.
Dear Chairman!
Ladies and Gentlemen!
The
delegation of the Republic of Armenia welcomes the idea of convening this Anniversary
Meeting.
All of us should pay tribute
of acknowledgment to one of the most important Conventions of the present, which
touches upon destinies of millions of people.
Population movements accompanied
Armenian people throughout its all history. At the beginning of the last century
they accepted extremely uncivilized, barbarous forms and gained huge scales.
The matter concerns conducted
in period from 1880 to 1915 policy of mass deportation and massacre of the Armenian
population by the authorities of the Ottoman Empire. Owing to genocide more
than 1,5 million Armenians was killed, about one million found the asylum in
neighboring countries, and dispersed worldwide later on.
We are deeply grateful
to international community, and particularly to League of Nations, the first
efforts of which, in the field of humanitarian solution of refugees’ problems,
had been closely connected with destiny of our people. The name of great Norwegian
humanist, F. Nansen, is very dear to each Armenian. In those far years, when
countries of the world were making only first steps on creation of a common
protection system of universal values, inadmissibility of wars and violence,
when specialized international organizations were just at a stage of establishment,
he stood up for the protection of Armenian refugees.
Our people has also confronted
with violent exile from places of their permanent residence at the end of the
past century. Starting with known events in Soumgait, during 1988-1992, the
Azerbaijan authorities steadily and without choice of means have been conducting
policy of ethnic cleansing. As a result of these events approximately half a
million of ethnic Armenians living in Azerbaijan suffered, and 420 thousand
out of them forcibly moved to Armenia.
In those tragic days
Armenia still was in a shock, which was caused by devastating Spitack earthquake
of 1988, taken away lives of tens of thousands people and left without shelter
more than 530 thousand people. Later, as a result of Azerbaijan aggression and
raids on the bordering territories of Armenia as well as continued occupation
of the whole Artsvashen region, 72 thousand people forcibly moved deep into
the country. Consequently, proclaimed independence Republic of Armenia faced
the task of providing with shelter more than 1 million people, with the total
population of country that period of time counted 3.5 million.
Mr. Chairman
From
the very start of the mass inflow of refugees, the Government of Armenia has
undertaken all necessary steps on rendering them with urgent humanitarian assistance.
Since 1993 to efforts of the Government of the republic an effective support
of international community and in particular UNHCR has been added. However,
both scale and complexity of the phenomenon as well as presence of other problems,
not less important and urgent, have conditioned that during the past ten years
the naturalization and integration of refugees has been proceeding extremely
slowly. Till now more than 13 thousand refugee families still live in temporary
dwellings. According to assessment, unemployment rate among the refugees 3.6
times higher as compared with local population; there is no progress in resolving
the problem of compensation for the property left in Azerbaijan. The availability
of these problems promotes generating of a feeling of alienation and isolation
from society among refugees. Probably it can explain the fact, that out of 311
thousand refugees, more than ten years living in same ethnic environment with
native population, only 45 thousand have acquired citizenship of Armenia. Taking
into account the fact that refugees constitute about 10 % of the total population
of Armenia (the highest indicator among CIS countries) it is not difficult to
imagine, what high-gravity consequences can have their unsolved problems on
stability of social and political life of the republic, and on the region as
a whole.
The issues of legislative
securing of the rights, freedoms and responsibilities of the refugees and asylum
seekers have always been and remain in a center of attention of our state. Armenia
has considerably progressed in developing national legislative framework of
the indicated field and it is not only our opinion. During the last two years
six laws and more than fifty governmental decrees regulating this field have
been adopted. The whole complex of issues concerning granting of asylum in the
republic is completely settled, starting with rendering free legal and medical
assistance and finishing with procedure on refugee status determination. All
aforementioned legislative acts have been designed in the spirit of the 1951
Geneva Convention. A special reception center for asylum seekers began to operate
as a result of active support provided by UNHCR.
We, jointly with UNHCR,
regularly work on improving legislative framework. Thus, next year it is planned
to make amendments in twelve already adopted legislative acts.
Our republic has actively
joined the process of Global Consultations. Interministerial working group was
created by decree of the Prime minister, aimed at developing of a standpoint
concerning the draft declaration to be adopted at this meeting. We completely
agree with it and from this high tribune we reaffirm commitment of our republic
to fundamental principles and universally recognized norms of rights and freedoms
of individuals, including those for asylum seekers and refugees as well.
At the same time, as a
result of fruitful six months’ activities of the aforementioned working
group, proposals on improving international protection of persons belonging
to vulnerable groups has been elaborated. These proposals have been submitted
to UNHCR with the purpose of their further reviewing during consultations within
the framework of the Executive Committee of UNHCR on problems not completely
covered by the Convention.
Dear Mr. Chairman
Currently
there is a constant withstanding between destructive and creative. The tragic
events of September 11 have urged the international community to consolidate
in strife against such monstrous phenomenon as terrorism. Armenia once again
presents its deep condolences to all American people and condemns terrorism
in all its shapes and developments.
Fifty years ago policy-makers
from many countries gathered together here, in Geneva, and agreed upon further
cooperation in mitigating the plights of millions innocent people - the refugees.
Unfortunately, many problems of the refugees are not resolved yet. But we hope
that our meeting will serve as a powerful incentive to enhance close co-operation.
Thank for attention!
