MP Appeals to the Council of Europe for the Safety of 62 Captured Citizens

MP Nazeli Baghdasaryan from the “My Step” faction has made a statement on Facebook regarding the safety and health guarantees for the 62 citizens captured from Shirak province. Today, I contacted the Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) of the Council of Europe.

In a letter addressed to President Mikola Gnatyuk, I called for necessary measures to be taken and, if possible, to conduct an urgent (ad hoc) visit to monitor the conditions of the captured individuals held in closed Azerbaijani facilities.

According to international humanitarian law, captured individuals have the right to life, physical, and mental health security after the cessation of hostilities.

Captured individuals must receive protection in all circumstances and deserve humane treatment without any discrimination. The right to correspondence with family members and to receive assistance must be guaranteed.

It should be noted that earlier, the Armenian government, represented by its representative in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), along with various human rights defenders, had appealed regarding our 62 compatriots to the ECHR. The European Court of Human Rights implemented urgent interim measures on this issue.

It is regrettable to note that the deadline of December 28, by which Azerbaijan was supposed to provide information concerning the prisoners of war, supply medical documents, and announce the timelines for their exchange, was violated.

Therefore, considering the blatant disregard shown by the Azerbaijani authorities towards legal proceedings, particularly the decisions of the European Court, as well as the repeated violations of deadlines set in the Court's decisions and the recent statements by the President of Azerbaijan, Armenia appealed to the European Court on January 3 and 5, demanding the issue of Azerbaijani violations be presented to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe based on the Court's Rule 39 - Paragraph 2.

This letter I sent today to the Committee for the Prevention of Torture is yet another additional measure that, along with the existing judicial mechanisms of the European Court, we hope will be applied as a preventive and non-judicial mechanism, since the CPT is an integral part of the Council of Europe’s human rights protection system.

I find it essential to urge everyone once again to refrain from publishing the names and other personal details of the captives on social networks.