Activities of the Commissioner on child rights protection during pandemic was brought to attention in an international online meeting

Deputy head of the department and head of International Relations Sector at the Ombudsman Office, Zaur Valimammadli and chief advisor of the Sector, Fargana Mammadkhanli have recently participated in an online meeting, jointly organized by the UNICEF and European Network of Ombudspersons for Children (ENOC).

The meeting, which brought together 58 participants, including representatives of several international organizations, focused on exchange of experiences among European Ombudspersons in the direction of effective child rights protection during pandemic.

The representative of the Ombudsman Office informed the participants about the activity of the Azerbaijani Ombudsman Sabina Aliyeva in the field of effectively ensuring and protecting the rights of vulnerable groups of the population, including children during the quarantine regime enacted in the country.

This was mentioned that despite the live reception at the premises of the institution is temporarily suspended, the appeals are lodged with the Ombudsman via an online form, 24/7 hotlines, as well as social networking accounts of the institution; those received via hotline for child rights protection are operatively responded.

This was also noted that the Ombudsman’s regional centers conducted visits to children’s homes in order to monitor the status of ensuring child rights during the pandemic period and in their course, the NPG members examined the preventive measures against the spread of the virus, existing sanitary situation, conditions of living for children of different age groups, treatment of children by the staff of the facility and the situation of child rights protection. It was reported by responsible officers of the child facility that numerous children were taken by their families during the pandemic. The outside contact and meetings with parents have been temporarily canceled for preventing the wide spread of the virus.

Participants were also informed about the Ombudsman’s Statement issued with regard to June 1. The representative of the Office concluded the speech by stating that the Ombudsman and staff of the Office are taking much more operative actions for human rights protection under the motto “We are stronger together” introduced for strengthening solidarity in the society in the context of the fight against COVID-19.