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Ombudsman Sabina Aliyeva received US ambassador to Azerbaijan

15 September 2020 19:27 (UTC +04:00)

Human Rights Commissioner (Ombudsman) of the Republic of Azerbaijan Sabina Aliyeva has received extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador of the United States of America to our country Earle D. Litzenberger, Ombudsman’s Administrative Office told APA.

S. Aliyeva said although live reception of people has been halted at the Ombudsman institution due to COVID-19 pandemic, the acceptance of appeals has been continued via hotlines, social networks and in electronic format. It was stressed that during the period of pandemic, the regular monitoring sessions were conducted by Ombudsman in the places that couldn’t be left by persons under their own volition in the framework of activity of the National Preventive Mechanism, and the provision of rights of the detained persons were kept in focus of the Commissioner.

The Commissioner said during the meeting the appeal of each person is approached sensitively, without discrimination. In response to the guest’s question about pardoning issues, Ombudsman noted that 176 prisoners at the age above 65 were exempted from non-carried part of sentence by relevant order of the country’s President in April of the current year, also 10 prisoners were set at liberty taking into consideration Ombudsman’s appeal.

Ombudsman touched upon the issue of non-solution of the problem of blatant violation of rights of Shahbaz Guliyev and Dilgam Asgarov held hostage by Armenia and tortures and dignity humiliating treatment applied to these persons despite of addressing of multiple special appeals in this regard to the concerned international institutions. She said she is hopeful that the international community will give proper legal appraisal to this issue in a short time, and the USA will provide relevant support for bringing back our compatriots taken prisoner and hostage.

The Commissioner noted that Armenia caused serious obstacle to establishment of peace in the region by regularly violating ceasefire regime during the period of pandemic as well, and by committing attacks of provocative nature against Azerbaijan. She talked about sudden attack committed by Armenia in July of this year in order to capture Azerbaijan’s positions on the site of Tovuz region. Ombudsman brought to the notice that during that period, she conducted a fact-finding mission on the territories where the military provocations occurred, and the interim report was prepared on the basis of the collected materials and was addressed to the concerned international organizations. Sabina Aliyeva noted that during these provocative attacks, the Armenian side gravely violated norms of the international humanitarian law by targeting civil persons and facilities. The Commissioner said she hopes that the USA as a co-chair country of the OSCE Minsk Group will give adequate response to Armenia’s provocations.

The US ambassador expressed his gratitude to Ombudsman for the warm reception. The ambassador noted that the cooperation is developing between our countries in the economic, social areas and in the areas of energy, as well as security. He stressed that the position of Ombudsman is very important in the area of efficient defense of human rights. Also the perspectives of cooperation in the area of improvement of knowledge and practices in regard to human rights were discussed.