Ombudsman Sabina Aliyeva met with US Ambassador to Azerbaijan

The Commissioner for Human Rights (Ombudsman) of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ms. Sabina Aliyeva met with the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of Azerbaijan Mr. Earle D.Litzenberger.

The directions of mutual cooperation in the field of human rights protection were discussed in the meeting.

During the meeting the Ombudsman spoke about her fact-finding missions in residential places of Azerbaijan which were exposed to the rocket attacks of the Armed Forces of Armenia in the period of Armenia-Azerbaijan war started from 27 September and ended on 10 November of 2020 upon joint statement signed by Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia. The Ombudsman mentioned that her 7 reports based on the facts and evidences obtained during those fact-finding missions and a report related to the torture and ill-treatment towards the Azerbaijani Prisoners of War and hostages were prepared and sent to the relevant international organizations, embassies as well as the US Embassy in Azerbaijan.

S. Aliyeva said she met, in person, with the Azerbaijani servicemen and civilians who were taken captive and hostage by Armenia and inquired about their problems. The Ombudsman also added that she visited the Armenian POWs, paid attention to ensuring their rights and provided them with the European Convention on Human Rights in the Armenian language.

The Ombudsman mentioned that the rights of IDPs were finally restored as a result of liberation of the territories of Azerbaijan that were under the occupation of Armenia for almost for 30 years. Furthermore, the Ombudsman drew attention to the landmines planted by Armenia in the territories of Azerbaijanin in the period of occupation. She expressed her deep concern about refusal of Armenia to provide the map of landmines to the Azerbaijani side.

During the meeting the parties also discussed the prospects of cooperation on legal awareness-raising.

The Ambassador thanked the Ombudsman for the warm welcome.