Staff of the Ombuds Institution took part in the seminar on 'The National Implementation of International Humanitarian Law'

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Ombudsman Office of Azerbaijan jointly hosted a seminar on "The National Implementation of International Humanitarian Law (IHL)."

The purpose of the seminar was to increase awareness of the implementation of IHL, to learn from international experience, and to exchange views on the perspectives of joint cooperation to address the challenges in this field.

While making opening remarks at the seminar, which was also attended by the Committee experts, Ms. Sabina Aliyeva, the Ombudsman of Azerbaijan, and Ms. Dragana Kojic, the head of the ICRC in Azerbaijan, wished success to the work of the seminar.

The Ombudsman stated during her speech that Armenia, which occupied our territories for about thirty years, had flagrantly violated IHL norms by committing war crimes, ecological terrorism, and landmine terrorism both during the First and Second Karabakh Wars and in the post-conflict period. S. Aliyeva also added that both our civilians and soldiers suffered casualties as a result of the explosion of mines and military ammunition in these areas and that Armenia is not concerned with ensuring peace in the region.

The international experts, making presentations according to the agenda, shared their experience in relevant thematic fields and exchanged ideas with the participants.

During the discussions, the staff of the ombuds institution provided extensive information about the Ombudsman's mandate and activities. It was noted that in order to investigate the facts of violations of IHL norms by Armenia in times of war and post-war periods, the Ombudsman conducted fact-finding missions and on-site investigations, as a result of which reports and statements have been prepared based on the factual materials collected and submitted to the relevant international human rights institutions.

At the conference, experts also discussed the perspectives for future collaboration between the Ombuds Institution and the ICRC under the auspices of the latter.