Օverview of the key highlights of the activities of the Permanent Mission of Armenia to the United Nations in 2021

31 December, 2021

In 2021, the Permanent Mission of Armenia to the United Nations continued to work progressively towards implementation of Armenia’s priorities for multilateral cooperation including through participation in the UN-led intergovernmental processes and continued engagement with the UN system, member states and major stakeholders. The Permanent Mission has actively engaged with the UN main bodies and subsidiary organs, presenting views and positions on a wide range of substantive topics, including those on international peace and security, disarmament, sustainable development, promotion of human rights and prevention of their grave and massive violations, including the crime of genocide, empowerment of women climate change and public health.

The High-Level segment of the General debate of the 76^th Session of the UN General Assembly was held in a hybrid format due to the COVID-19 pandemic with in-person participation and video recordings from 20 to 28 September 2021. More than 150 heads of State and Government participated in the debate. On 24 September, the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan delivered a pre-recorded statement during the General Debate. The delegation of Armenia was headed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan. On the sidelines of the General debate, Minister Mirzoyan held around 30 meetings with the counterparts from a number of the UN member states as well as heads of international organizations and UN structures. During the meeting between Ararat Mirzoyan and UN Secretary General António Guterres the sides commended effective cooperation between Armenia and the various specialized UN bodies. The Foreign Minister also held meetings with the Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide Alice Wairimu Nderitu, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary Dicarlo, UN High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations Miguel Ángel Moratinos, UN High Representative for Refugees Filippo Grandi.

Within the United Nations, Armenia continued to contribute to advancing effective and responsible multilateralism, in the face of the existing and emerging threats, including the COVID-19 pandemic, related disruptions and the unprecedented combination of global challenges, having demonstrated unwavering commitment to partnerships for dialogue and cooperation, including through leadership roles across various formats and platforms at the United Nations.

In 2021, the Permanent Representative of Armenia Mher Margaryan, for the second consecutive year, chaired the Commission on the Status of Women, whose 65^th session was held from 15 to 26 March. The Commission on the Status of Women is the principal intergovernmental policy-making body in the areas of women’s rights, gender equality and empowerment of women. The 65^th session of the CSW considered the priority theme “Women’s full and effective participation and decision-making in public life, as well as the elimination of violence, for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls” and paid particular attention to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women and girls. The work of the Commission resulted in the adoption of strong and consensual Agreed Conclusions, which set recommendations on the measures for full and equal participation of women in all areas of public life, including in the government and public sector. The document also reaffirms the importance of engaging women in peace processes and outlines recommendations for the elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls.

In June 2021, the Permanent Representative of Armenia Mher Margaryan was unanimously elected by the General Assembly, as the Chair of the Administrative and Budgetary Committee, one of the six main committees of the UN General Assembly, for the 76^th session of the UNGA.

The Fifth Committee adopts the UN regular and peacekeeping budgets, as well as questions related to human resources and management of the Organization. As Chair of the Fifth Committee, the Permanent Representative of Armenia has prioritized sustainable and adequate resourcing of the United Nations mandates to ensure the ability of the Organization to prevent and respond to the evolving challenges, making it more fit-for-purpose and result oriented. Strong engagement of the Armenian delegation and the members of the bureau, resulted in the successful and timely conclusion of the main session on 23 December 2021 and the adoption of the budget of the United Nations for 2022. Under the chairmanship of the Permanent Representative of Armenia, the Committee also adopted a number of resolutions related to the UN financial and administrative matters, including the scales of assessment, which define the scales of the annual contributions of the 193 member States to the budget of the United Nations.

The timely adoption of the UN budget and the related resolutions are crucial for ensuring unhindered operations of the Organisation and for enabling it to properly manage the necessary financial and human resources. Issues related to the UN financial situation և human resource management included in the agenda of the Fifth Committee as well as those related to the financing of the UN peacekeeping missions will be discussed by the Committee during the First and Second resumed sessions, to be held respectively in March and May-June 2022.

In 2021, the delegation of Armenia delivered a large number of thematic statements and interventions during the sessions of the UN General Assembly and its six main committees, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council and its functional commissions, with a focus on Armenia’s priorities on the matters of international peace and security, protection of civilians in armed conflicts, fight against international terrorism, genocide prevention, countering racism and xenophobia, promoting human rights, gender equality and sustainable development.

Armenia’s engagement with the UN Security Council

The Permanent Mission has been consistent in bringing to the attention of the UN member states the aggression of Azerbaijan against Artsakh in the fall of 2020 and its consequences, in particular, the persistent humanitarian challenges, the imperative of the return of the Armenian prisoners of war, the preservation of the Armenian religious and cultural heritage, as well as the military provocations of the armed forces of Azerbaijan along the state borders of Armenia in 2021.

UNSC Open debates, official communication

At the UN Security Council Meeting “Upholding the collective security system of the UN Charter: the use of force in international law, non-state actors and legitimate self-defense”, the Permanent Representative of Armenia underscored that nothing in the UN Charter or the general international law can justify instances of instrumentalization of the concept and practice of self-defense as a cover-up for military action in an effort to resolve an international dispute by use of force, referring to the premeditated armed aggression of Azerbaijan against the people of Nagorno-Karabakh in September 2020 as a dangerous precedent of violating the pre-eminent obligation to strictly adhere to the principles of non-use of force or threat of force and the pacific settlement of disputes.

At the UN Security Council open debate on the topic of “Protection of objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population”, the Permanent Representative of Armenia referred to the deliberate and indiscriminate attacks by the Azerbaijani armed forces on the civilian objects, residential buildings, and critical infrastructure during the aggression against Artsakh, stressing the unacceptability of Azerbaijan’s attempts to politicize and instrumentalize the issue of safe and unhindered humanitarian access of the UN agencies to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone, which are not compatible with the fundamental humanitarian principles.

At the UN Security Council open debate on the topic of “The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the international efforts to prevent and counter terrorism and violent extremism”, the Permanent Representative of Armenia stressed that thousands of foreign terrorist fighters were employed in the large-scale military aggression against Nagorno-Karabakh, which was documented by several countries and independent observers.

Azerbaijan’s attacks against the territorial integrity of Armenia have been brought to the attention of the UN Security Council through the letters from the Permanent Representative addressed to the President of the Security Council and the Secretary-General informing about Azerbaijan’s acts of aggression accompanied with territorial claims, threats to use force and hate speech on ethnic grounds at the highest level.

At the UN General Assembly plenary meeting on the Responsibility to Protect and the prevention of genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity, the Permanent Representative of Armenia highlighted the importance of countering hate speech, including denial, justification or glorification of past crimes, as well as fight against racism and discrimination. Ambassador Margaryan underscored that Armenia, whose people have undergone through the horrors of Genocide in the early 20th century, will continue to support the imperative of preventing situations, which can result in atrocity crimes.

At the general debate of the Disarmament and International Security (First) Committee the delegation of Armenia reiterated the importance of full and universal implementation of the international obligations in the areas of non-proliferation, disarmament, conventional arms control and the imperative to adequately react to the breaches of the core provisions of the CFE Treaty and Vienna Document.

Within the Economic and Financial (Second) Committee, the delegation of Armenia highlighted the importance of efficient cooperation between the landlocked and transit countries and underlined that incendiary and manipulative rhetoric and threats to use force by some to create so-called “corridors”, manifest continuation of policy of land blockade and are detrimental to peace and sustainable development in the region.

At the general debate of the Social, Humanitarian and Cultural (Third) Committee, the Permanent Representative of Armenia referred to the importance of restoration and protection of rights and implementation of the right to self-determination of the people of Artsakh, underscoring that according to the UN Charter and the Covenants on Political and Civil Rights and on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the right of people to self-determination is a fundamental principle of the international human rights law.

During the debates at the Legal (Sixth) Committee, the delegation of Armenia raised the issue of growing hate speech and xenophobia, creating conditions conducive for radicalization and recruitment of terrorists and mercenaries and their involvement in conflicts. The Armenian side welcomed the deliberations for the adoption of new Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes against Humanity.

At the ECOSOC Special Meeting on the elimination of racism, xenophobia and discrimination, the Permanent Representative of Armenia delivered a statement, in which he referred to the pre-planned aggression against the people of Nagorno-Karabakh in the midst of the global health crisis, with multiple instances of war crimes, atrocities, extrajudicial killings of civilian hostages and prisoners of war, as well as desecration and destruction of the Armenian Christian heritage․

In 2021, Armenia continued its active cooperation with the United Nations Development system in number of areas, as reflected official signing of the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework for Armenia for 2021-2025 on 1 June 2021 in Yerevan. It was followed by adoption of the UNDP, UNFPA and UNICEF Country Programme Documents for Armenia for 2021-2025, which take into account the complex development challenges facing Armenia and are based on Armenia’s needs and priorities and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Round-table discussions and events organized by the Permanent Mission of Armenia

Within the United Nations, Armenia has been consistent in driving forward thematic deliberations, dialogue and exchanges, including through a series of panel discussions and high-level side events organized throughout the year.

On 18 March, the Permanent Mission of Armenia organized a virtual roundtable discussion entitled “Between War and Pandemic: Voices from the Field” on the margins of the 65^th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, which was dedicated to the strengthening of the protection mechanisms, particularly the protection of rights of women affected by conflict. Maria Victoria Cabrera (Mavic) Balleza, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP); Lindsey Snell, Investigative Journalist; Lika Zaqaryan, journalist from Artsakh; Shant Shekherdimian, Assistant Professor of Surgery at UCLA; Karena Avedissian, PhD, Political Scientist addressed the event as panelists. The discussion was moderated by Mrs. Lucy Varpetian, Chairperson of the Armenian Bar Association, a non-profit US entity. The panelists reflected on the consequences of the aggression against Artsakh in 2020 in the context of the violation rights of women and girls, including in condition of socio-economic and healthcare crises due to the COVID-19 pandemic (https://media.un.org/en/asset/k17/k17ac0fdsk).

On 26 April, the Permanent Mission of Armenia organized a virtual panel discussion entitled “From Emergency Relief to Multilateral Humanitarianism: The Legacy of Near East Philanthropy in the Age of Genocide”, in observance of the 106^th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. The event was dedicated to the humanitarian legacy of the Near East Foundation - one of the oldest international philanthropy organizations, which was initially formed in 1915 to address the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of the Armenian Genocide. Among the panelists, who addressed the event were Dr. Khatchig Mouradian, Lecturer at Columbia University, Dr. Hugo Slim, Senior Research Fellow at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford and Ms. Sarah Leah Whitson, Executive Director of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN). The panelists reflected on the response of the international community to the Armenian Genocide, countering denialism and prevention of future atrocity crimes (https://media.un.org/en/asset/k1c/k1cae7fmlv).

To mark the 30^th anniversary of the Independence Day of the Republic of Armenia, on 13 October the Permanent Mission of Armenia presented a concert by the award-winning pianist Karine Poghosyan at Carnegie Hall in New York. The performance showcased classical works by Aram Khachaturian, Sergey Rachmaninov, George Gershwin and other world-renowned composers. The concert was followed by an official reception organized by the Permanent Mission of Armenia, attended by Permanent Representatives of the UN member states, diplomats, UN Secretariat officials and the members of the Armenian community of New York․

On 9 December, in observance of the International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of this Crime, the Permanent Mission jointly with the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect organized a virtual discussion, entitled “The Role of Education in Combatting Genocide Denial”, dedicated to the role of education in countering the denial of atrocity crimes and prevention of genocide. Video messages were addressed to the participants of the events by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia Vahe Gevorgyan and Special Adviser of the UN Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide Alice Wairimu Nderitu. The Permanent Representative of Armenia to the United Nations Mher Margaryan; Executive Director of the Global Centre for Responsibility to Protect Savita Pawnday, Lecturer of New York Columbia University Dr. Khatchig Mouradian; Professor of History of Massachusetts Clark University Dr. Taner Akçam; Executive Director of Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Center Tali Nates, Program Manager of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Andrea Gittleman and Deputy Executive Director of Auschwitz Institute for the Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities Jack Mayerhofer delivered their remarks. The panelists discussed new forms of denial of atrocity crimes and their implication on the realization of the right to truth and justice of the victims of genocide (https://media.un.org/en/asset/k1w/k1wtccbods).

2022 marks the 30^th anniversary of Armenia’s membership to the United Nations. Throughout that period the Organization has been a crucial partner for Armenia in pursuing the reform agenda, building representative and accountable democratic institutions, promoting good governance, rule of law and human rights. Since joining the United Nations on March 2, 1992 Armenia strongly identifies with the purposes and principles enshrined in its Charter, contributing to sustainable development, the prevention of genocide and fight against denialism, the promotion of human rights and fundamental freedoms and addressing the global challenges.

MFA RA
official website

Dual citizenship

Electronic visa

Visa applications