Deputy Chairman of the Western Azerbaijani Community’s Supervision and Inspection Commission, MP Shahin Ismayilov, attended the 17th Session of the United Nations Forum on Minority issues held on November 28-29, 2024 in Geneva, Switzerland.

Addressing the session, MP Shahin Ismayilov noted that the Western Azerbaijanis were expelled from Armenia, adding that as a result, this country has become a completely monoethnic state. The MP underlined that the Western Azerbaijani Community adopted the Concept of Return, which serves to ensure the safe and dignified return of the Western Azerbaijanis to their ancestral homeland in Armenia in compliance with international law. He stressed that the UN must play an active role in ensuring the return of Western Azerbaijanis and the full protection of their rights and security.

MP Ismayilov also underscored that the issue of ensuring the return of the Western Azerbaijanis to their ancestral homeland should be high on the UN’s human rights agenda.

The UN Forum on Minority Issues meets annually for two working days allocated to thematic discussions pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 6/15 of 28 September 2007 and resolution 19/23 of 23 March 2012. The Forum is open to Member States, United Nations mechanisms, bodies and specialized agencies, funds and programmes, intergovernmental organizations, regional organizations and mechanisms in the field of human rights, national human rights institutions and other relevant national bodies, academics and experts on minority issues, representatives of minorities and minority and non- governmental organizations.