Ombudsman of Azerbaijan held official meetings at the OHCHR Geneva Office

The delegation headed by the Commissioner for Human Rights (Ombudsman)  of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Ms. Sabina Aliyeva met in Geneva with Ms. Nada Al Nashif, the UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights and  with other several high-ranking officials, including Ms. Afshan Khan,  UNICEF Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia.

In the course of the meetings, the Ombudsman gave broad information on the activities with regard the efficient protection of human rights during her terms of office, and the priority issues of the Office. She drew attention specifically on the effective cooperation of the Azerbaijani Ombudsman Institution and international organizations, including the UN and its specialized agencies from the very beginning. Ms. Aliyeva underlined that since 2006, her institution has been accredited as an NHRI by the UN, which collaborates with UN Treaty Bodies and submits written and verbal formal reports to the UN Human Rights Council.

The Commissioner spoke about the work carried out for effective protection of human rights and freedoms underlining that the country President signed an Executive Order On improving work in the penitentiary system, humanization of the punishment policy and expansion of alternative punishments and procedural enforcement measures not associated with isolation from society. The Ombudsman Office also actively participate in the process of control over the implementation of the issues driven from this Executive Order. The Commissioner drew attention of Ms. Al Nashif to the facts of  ethnic cleansing and aggression committed against Azerbaijan, occupation of 20 percent of our territories by the Armenian armed forces, and expelling of more than one million refugees and IDPs from their native lands as a result of the Armenia's policy of aggression by stressing the fact that the existence of a separatist regime in the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas are gross violation of  international law and  the principle of inviolability of territorial integrity.

It was noted that currently the protection of the rights and freedoms of IDPs, refugees and migrants is also one of the priorities of the Commissioner’s activity. Ms. Aliyeva said that during the meeting with the head of the UNHCR Azerbaijan Representative, she recommended to sign a new and longer-term Memorandum of Understanding to extend the cooperation between two institutions.

The Commissioner noted that within her mandate, defined by the Constitutional Law on Ombudsman, she accepts appeals and complaints by foreigners and stateless persons, along with citizens. While giving information about the anti-discrimination measures, she said that her Office has joined to the CoE/EU joint Regional Project on “Strengthening access to justice through non-judicial redress mechanisms for victims of discrimination, hate crime and hate speech in Eastern Partnership Countries” since 2009 and has participated in a number of international events and seminars in the frame of this project, including a training seminar, which was held in Guba region of Azerbaijan with participation of national minorities and community members in order to strengthen the capacity and experience of the staff members of the Office. This was also underlined that the expansion of the mandate of the Azerbaijani Ombudsman towards combating discrimination required also by the Paris Principles, and also accepted as international criteria for the  activities of NHRIs, remained among the priority issues in the near future.

During the meeting with the UNICEF Regional Director, Ms. Afshan Khan this was stressed by the Ombudsman that the effective protection of children's rights at the national level is always in the focus of her attention, and represented Office closely cooperates with the UNICEF Country Representative in this field. The Commissioner informed about meeting with UNICEF Representative to Azerbaijan, Edward Carwardine for discussing the issue of the establishment of a single Ombudsman hotline, which is reflected in the National Action Plan for 2020-2022 to promote Open Government and the parties have signed a joint action plan on cooperation for the current year.