The US Department of State has released Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2012.
The Armenian National Committee of America welcome progress by the Administration – insufficient but still encouraging – confirming that the final status of Nagorno Karabakh remains the subject of OSCE talks.
Unfortunately, this progress, made despite aggressive lobbying by Baku, is packaged as part of a broader report that includes a number of serious shortcomings, among them:
– The report ignores President Aliyev’s pardon of unrepentant Armenian hating axe-murderer Ramil Safarov.
– The report ignores again (for the 8th year in a row) Azerbaijan’s desecration of the Armenian cemetery in Djulfa.
– The report ignores anti-Armenian discrimination in Azerbaijan despite an official US travel warning to ethnic Armenians.
– The report ignores President Aliyev’s racist rant that all the Armenians of the world are enemies of Azerbaijan.
In the section devoted to Armenia the report says “the most significant human rights problems during the year were limitations on the right of citizens to change their government, corruption and lack of transparency in government, and the limited independence of the judiciary.”
