At the meeting of the Indigenous Peoples’ Caucus held prior to the session of the United Nations Expert Mechanism on Indigenous Peoples in Geneva on July 16, 2023, Foreign Minister Lydia Margossian paid tribute to the memory of a historic figure in the defense of human rights.

Ms. Margossyan declared: “I would like to pay tribute to a historic indigenous representative who was instrumental in the drafting of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and who recently passed away. His name was Lazaro Pary, a representative of the Quechua people, who left us with a profound statement: ‘If humanity doesn’t save indigenous peoples, it won’t save itself.’ He envisioned collaborating with other indigenous peoples and successfully obtained United Nations Economic and Social Council  status to advocate for their rights. It is with this perspective, and particularly if we aim for self-determination with the status of governance, which some of us have already implemented, that we will push forward to the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly.”