CSI’s UN representative, Abi McDougal, delivered the following statement on the need for international support around the Swiss Peace Initiative for Nagorno Karabakh, as part of the General Debate on Item 9 during the 60th session of the Human Rights Council.
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October 2, 2025
Watch the 37th meeting of the 60th session in full:
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Full text:
This week marks two years since Azerbaijan expelled 120,000 ethnic Armenians from their homeland in Nagorno Karabakh during September of 2023.
In November 2023, the International Court of Justice ordered the Republic of Azerbaijan, in accordance with its obligations under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, to “ensure that persons who have left Nagorno-Karabakh after 19 September 2023 and who wish to return to Nagorno-Karabakh are able to do so in a safe, unimpeded and expeditious manner.”
Thus far, the international community has taken no steps to ensure this order is implemented.
The parliament of Switzerland has mandated the Swiss government to hold a peace forum between Azerbaijan and the representatives of the displaced Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh, in order to negotiate the safe and collective return of Nagorno Karabakh’s Armenian population.
This mechanism represents a neutral, credible, and law-based framework to acknowledge and operationalize the right of return for Nagorno Karabakh’s Armenians. We urge the Council and all UN member states to lend their support to the Swiss Peace Initiative for Nagorno Karabakh.
Two years later, it is still not too late to undo the ethnic cleansing of Nagorno Karabakh.
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Learn more about the Swiss Peace Initiative from CSI’s side event at the UN, held September 29, 2025:
Learn more about CSI’s work for religious liberty and human dignity:
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Thank you fire your efforts !