Azerbaijan planning to open Children's Ombudsman Institution
By Nigar Orujova
Azerbaijan is planning to open a Children’s Ombudsman Institution. Similar centers are already working in 44 countries charged with protecting and promoting the rights of young people. They deals with individual complaints and generally promote the children's rights in public policy, law and practice.
The creation of such an institution was first initiated by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Council of Europe.
Ombudsman Elmira Suleymanova believes that the establishment of the Institute of the Children’s Ombudsman can open more opportunities to protect children' rights in Azerbaijan.
However, she noted that children's ombudsman Institution is liquidated in many countries, and the corresponding structures are created either under the Administration of the President, or other bodies.
In this regard, the Ombudsman Office has sent a special report to the Committee on the Rights of the Child at the UN, she added.
"They called for establishing a separate institution for the children's ombudsman, or creating one under Ombudsman Office to deal with children's rights, Suleymanova said. “In this regard, we are waiting for the decision of the government.”
In the CIS countries, the institution is now functioning in Russia, Georgia and Ukraine.
In Russia, the first children's ombudsmen center appeared in 1998 within the framework of cooperation between Russia and UNICEF, and today, children's ombudsmen operate in 50 regions of the federation.
Ukraine was the first country to appoint children as children's ombudsman when Ivan Cherevko and Julia Kruk divided the post in late 2005.
The Public Defender of Georgia also manages a Child Rights Center.
The idea of creating the Children Ombudsman Institution is a positive sign if only it works, Head of children's rights protection league, Yusif Bekirov said.
“It is still unclear, in which direction the ombudsman will work. It is a positive fact indeed but only if it can implement and defend the rights of the children. The future will show how it manages to perform its duties. We have adopted many laws and held many discussions on this issue but nothing has been changed so far,” he noted.
Protection of the rights of people particularly children, is an essential commitment in all societies, and the new formation may become a productive step in the general direction to offer a secure life to all children living in Azerbaijan.