Members of Azerbaijani Ombudswoman's National Preventive Group assess conditions of POWs
By Sabina Mammadli
On October 12, members of the Azerbaijani Ombudswoman's National Preventive Group conducted monitoring at the Baku Detention Center of the Penitentiary Service without prior notice.
The visit, instructed by Human Rights Commissioner Sabina Aliyeva and organized in accordance with the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against torture and other cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment or punishment and the Constitutional Law 'On the Commissioner for Human Rights (Ombudsman) of the Republic of Azerbaijan', was aimed to study the detention conditions and treatment of detainees.
During the visit, which had doctors and psychologists of the NPG present, members of the group also received the Armenian servicemen, who were captured during the September clashes. Confidential conversations established the provision of each POW with medical care, correspondence, and access to information (television, etc.). The detained expressed no dissatisfaction with the conditions of detention and treatment.
Similarly, on October 5, Armenian Investigative Committee’s Press Secretary Vardan Tadevosyan noted that the Armenian servicemen handed over by Azerbaijan were not subjected to torture and ill-treatment.
The Ombudsman's Office noted that Azerbaijan remained committed to the norms of international law in the first and second Karabakh wars as well. However, Armenia, on the contrary, infringed upon the rights of two Azerbaijanis, who were held hostage in Armenia for more than six years. Their communication with family members was limited, while the Armenian captives in Azerbaijan were allowed to maintain close contact with their family members as part of the visits of members of the Azerbaijani Ombudsman's National Preventive Group.
The office emphasized that despite repeated appeals over the fate of 3,890 Azerbaijanis who went missing during the first Karabakh war, Armenia still evades providing necessary information, thus violating the requirements of international humanitarian law.
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