Head of Office of Ombudsman took part in an international seminar in Istanbul

An international seminar on “Islamophobia: A Human Rights Violation and A Contemporary Manifestation of Racism” was held in Istanbul on 17-18 October 2018 jointly organized by the Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Government of Turkey. The Head of the Office of the Ombudsman of Azerbaijan, Aydin Safikhanli participated in the event. The event was attended by UN, OSCE officials, Independent Permanent Human Rights Commissioner, Justice Minister of the Republic of Turkey, representatives of the State and National Human Rights Institutions of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, well-known experts and scholars.

Speaking at the Plenary Session, A. Safikhanli noted that Azerbaijan is a multinational and multi-confessional country and that the national policy of the country is based on the coexistence of different nationalities, ethnic groups and religious minorities, and tolerance principles. He also told that historically Azerbaijan has not witnessed conflicts on religious or discriminative grounds, and there are progressive national cultural and religious relations based on mutual trust and respect.

It was also stated that the main purpose of the Azerbaijani state is to create an environment in which citizens enjoy equal rights and freedoms, irrespective of their race, belief, ethnicity and other circumstances, under the Constitution of Azerbaijan, equal rights and freedoms is guaranteed for everyone regardless of race, nationality, religion, language, sex, origin, property status, their position, belief or affiliation with other public associations.

In some western countries, the existence of biased attitude toward Islam, or simply the people of Islamic countries, is that the attitude goes beyond the usual living standards and is widely used in public opinion and public life, barriers to education, education in some countries, vandalism against some mosques, attitudes, psychological pressure and influence, restrictions on the use of hijab, the creation of a biased public opinion against the Muslim values and the Muslim world, and the existing threat campaigns to burn the holy book of Islam, the necessity of implementation of measures with the aim of eliminating such unlawful situations were emphasized.

A. Safikhanli also mentioned that Islamophobia trends were demonstrated in relation to Azerbaijan and these tendencies were clearly felt in the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, as a result of the occupation of Armenia, 20% of the Azerbaijani lands were occupied and more than a million of our compatriots became refugees and internally displaced persons as a result of ethnic cleansing policy. Despite the fact that there are sufficient legal grounds for the fair settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the occupied territories of Azerbaijan have not been liberated so far, and there have been no decisive steps towards the restoration of violated rights of more than one million refugees and internally displaced persons, were brought to attention.

There were also some suggestions on eliminating Islamophobia, which is a gross violation of human rights. Encouraging all States to establish and strengthen national mechanisms for the fight against all forms of racism and hatred in close cooperation with international law, international human rights law, their commitment to media, religious leaders, institutions and civil society, Durban Declaration and the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, responsible for the implementation of its Action Plan, to propose periodic reports to the United Nations Human Rights Treaty and to submit relevant reports to the Human Rights Council during the Universal Periodic Review Mechanism.

It should be noted that A. Safikhanli's proposals were taken into consideration in the Istanbul Declaration adopted as the outcome of the international seminar.

On the second day of the event, the head of the Ombudsman's Office made a presentation on the role of the National Human Rights Institutions in the fight against Islamophobia, organized by the Turkish Human Rights and Equality Institution, and briefed on the activities of the Ombudsman of Azerbaijan in the field of human rights, including the fight against discrimination. He spoke about the issues of joint cooperation and answered numerous questions of the participants of the event.