Message to the public on Child Rights Month (20 October-20 November

31 years pass from the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of Child of 20 November 1989, which was also ratified by Azerbaijan.

One of the main directions of the national policy on children is to ensure that children are taken care, their best interests are protected, the necessary and favorable social conditions for their upbringing is created, and to ensure that they became as worthy citizens.

One of core directions of the activity of the  Ombudsman of Azerbaijan is promotion and protection of children’s rights.

Every year, at the threshold of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child  (CRC) anniversary, the Ombudsman at national level initiates “Child Rights Month-Long” campaign for the period from 20 October to 20 November to ensure that the children receives more attention and the child rights are further strengthened.   

Unfortunately, Armenia that is consistently hampering the regional peace due to its occupation policy and ethnic cleansing against Azerbaijan causes a threat to human rights and eternal danger in the entire region.  

Thirty-year military aggression of Armenia against Azerbaijan has been accompanying with the occupation of 20 percent of areas of Azerbaijan, ethnic cleansing and genocide, flow of over one million refugees and IDPs and serious violation of human rights. Children are one of those affected from this conflict, whose fundamental rights were violated.      

Since 27 October 2020, Armenian armed forces have been intensively launching deliberate and indiscriminate attacks on heavily populated areas, social, cultural and strategically important objects using heavy artillery, military aircrafts, special missile system and internationally prohibited weapons, which resulted in killing of eight children and wounding of 32. Many children became orphans.   

I have appealed to Ms. Afshan Khan, the UNICEF Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia (ECA) regarding all these facts and Armenia’s military aggression against civilian population of Azerbaijan, including children.  

The Committee on the Rights of the Child must take an initiative and call to undertake the prompt special procedures against the aggressor Armenia for gross violations of its international treaty obligations, in particular 1949 Geneva Conventions and CRC with high-level participation of the United Nations to provide legal protection of child rights guaranteed under international law.    

Currently, due to the COVID-19 pandemic declared by the World Health Organization, the Government of Azerbaijan issued a special quarantine regime and continues to undertake preventive and immediate social distancing measures to control the spread of infection at national level. 

On that note, the Operational Headquarters under the Cabinet of Ministers cancelled mass events as per the relevant decisions. Hence, along with the child rights awareness measures, it must be taken the actions for the restoration and prevention of the child rights violations without a live contact using modern information and communication technologies.   

Henceforth, I recommend to all state bodies, local self-governing bodies, civil society organizations, including non-governmental organizations and media to join our initiative on Child Rights Month-Long campaign run since 20 October and 20 November, 2020 by strictly following the rules of quarantine regime and to support promotional activity on child rights, including the right to health, to education, to social security and other rights through broadcasting them in online and written media, TV channels and social networks, holding online meetings and videoconferences, to develop various social videos on the relevant topic and call to sensitively approach the applications by citizens about the alleged violations.    

Sabina Aliyeva 

Commissioner for Human Rights

(Ombudsman) of Azerbaijan