Armenia refuses to share information about missing persons

A session on "International Humanitarian Law in Practice: Missing Persons" was held in Baku as part of a seminar dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions.

The session was moderated by Gumral Aslanova, legal advisor at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Speaking about obligations regarding missing persons, she noted that each of these obligations is reflected in the Geneva Conventions:

"They have been ratified. However, the international legal framework for obligations regarding missing persons also includes API and APII, the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, the Rome Statute, and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Of these, only the ECHR has been ratified by Azerbaijan."

Aslanova added that the ICRC maintains constant contact with families of missing persons and is aware of the psychosocial problems these families face.

Nitin Kumar Agrawal, Forensic Coordinator at ICRC Azerbaijan Delegation, spoke about the identification process:

"Initial investigation, recovery of human remains, examination, identification, and data comparison are components of this process. After identifying the person, families are contacted to collect and bury their loved onechr("39")s remains."

Aydan Talibova, an employee of the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights (Ombudsman) of Azerbaijan, stated that work continues rapidly to determine the fate of missing persons:

"The Ombudsmanchr("39")s Office regularly holds meetings to support families of missing persons and collects necessary information from them. The Ombudsmanchr("39")s Office has prepared a report on persons missing during the First Karabakh War. The report has been published in Azerbaijani and English. The families of our compatriots want information about them. Although Armenia has been contacted multiple times regarding this, they refuse to share information with us."