Azernews.Az

By Rashid Shirinov

The Azerbaijani delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) addressed the organization on January 25 with a number of important statements and proposals, during the PACE winter session taking place in Strasbourg.

In his speech, Samad Seyidov, the head of the delegation and the chairman of the parliamentary committee for international and interparliamentary relations, noted that the monitoring procedure carried out by the PACE should be changed.

“We observe a vivid selective approach in PACE. Monitoring is carried out for some countries, while it is not carried out at all for other countries,” he said.

Seyidov added that it is clear that the problems that sometimes occur in the countries which are monitored are stipulated not by the actions of those countries, but by the actions of the countries that are not monitored.

The head of delegation further called for serious work and avoiding selective approach. He also urged to think out how to change the monitoring procedure itself.

The PACE established a monitoring procedure in 1993. The declared goal of the monitoring is to make sure that all the CoE countries stand in the common legal and political framework defined in accordance with the CoE standards, the principles of the rule of law, parliamentary democracy and protection of human rights.

The Azerbaijani delegation to PACE, led by Seyidov, includes chairman of the parliamentary committee on culture Rafael Huseynov and MPs Sahiba Gafarova, Sevinj Fataliyeva, Ganira Pashayeva, Ulviya Agayeva, Sabir Hajiyev, Elshad Hasanov, Vusal Huseynov, Fazil Mustafa, Asim Mollazade and Rovshan Rzayev.

Presenting her report titled “Protecting children affected by armed conflicts,” Sevinj Fataliyeva said that Azerbaijan proposes studying consequences of armed conflicts for children.

“We must remember that many children live in the zone of armed conflicts,” she said, noting that the aim of her report is to draw attention to the fate of children suffering from conflicts in Syria, Sudan, Myanmar, Ukraine, Transnistria, as well as the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Fataliyeva stressed that children suffer from these conflicts, and their lives are under threat.

“In areas of armed conflict, children should enjoy special protection in accordance with the Geneva Convention, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Children suffer because of conflicts, and the international community cannot protect them,” the Azerbaijani MP said, calling this a serious problem.

Fataliyeva suggested to study the consequences of armed conflicts for children, actively intervene and put an end to conflicts. She noted it is necessary to develop programs for the rehabilitation of children suffering from conflicts in all regions of the world.

“If we want to avoid the lost generation, as it happens in many countries, we should not limit ourselves to expressing sympathy, but paying attention to their fate,” the MP said.

Another member of the Azerbaijani delegation Vusal Huseynov noted in his speech that any actions during the armed conflicts should be directed against militaries, and not against civilians.

“One of the main principles of the international humanitarian law is the principle of distinguishing between militaries and civilians. Unfortunately, we see that deliberate attacks on civilians are often committed,” he said.

Huseynov cited the fact of summer 2017, when as a result of the deliberate shelling of the territory of Azerbaijan, the Armenian Armed Forces killed a two-year-old girl Zahra Guliyeva together with her grandmother.

“Despite the fact that this contradicts all international obligations undertaken by Armenia, no investigation has been conducted in this regard,” the Azerbaijani MP said.

He recalled that the Armenian president publicly admitted during the PACE meeting that he personally took part in the killing of civilians in Khojaly in the occupied territory of Azerbaijan, thereby confirming once again that these actions were genocide.

“We lose credibility by participating in such discussions, we lose confidence of people if we limit ourselves to words and do not call criminals by their names, regardless of the post they occupy,” Huseynov noted.

He further mentioned that children are the most vulnerable group of population in armed conflicts and wars.

“They are victims of massacres, human trafficking, lecherous acts, and this is despite the fact that there are so many documents and protocols aimed at protecting children. Nevertheless, all this continues,” the MP noted.

He added that therefore, it is necessary not only to implement these international documents, but to fill the existing gaps. The main thing is to achieve peace in the conflict regions, Huseynov concluded.

Member of the delegation Rovshan Rzayev also noted that as a result of Armenia’s breach of the ceasefire on the contact line, children are also killed along with adults.

He called on the speakers to pay special attention to the solution of this problem and to include the issue in the agenda of the session.

The Azerbaijani MP recalled that as a result of the continuing occupation of the territories of Azerbaijan by Armenia, more than 700 civilians, including 92 minors, went missing from the Azerbaijani side.

“The importance of including this issue in the report is conditioned by the fact that Armenia – the occupier country, and Azerbaijan – the country subjected to aggression, are PACE members,” Rzayev said. “This will demonstrate our ability to act within the PACE and other international forums in order to ensure that women and children do not suffer because of armed conflicts.”

Armenia broke out a lengthy Nagorno-Karabakh war against Azerbaijan by laying territorial claims on the country. Since a war in the early 1990s, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

Until now, Armenia controls fifth part of Azerbaijan’s territory and rejects implementing four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding regions.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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