Human Rights Defender Appeals to OSCE Minsk Group on Return of Prisoners from Azerbaijan

The Human Rights Defender of Armenia, Arman Tatoyan, has officially appealed to the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group and the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk, regarding the return of prisoners from Azerbaijan and the protection of their rights.

In his letter, he emphasizes that the return or release of prisoners must be considered exclusively within the framework of human rights or humanitarian processes. The letter pertains to both military personnel and civilians.

The return of prisoners should be ensured immediately after the cessation of military operations. This is a universal requirement for international action that should be automatically applied. Conversely, failing to do so violates international human rights requirements and humanitarian law, including the Third Geneva Convention of 1949.

Thus, the eighth point of the trilateral statement from November 9, 2020, has autonomous significance and should operate only under its own interpretation. It must not be viewed in connection with or dependency on other points of the statement.

The November 9 trilateral statement should be applied to all situations that arise before and after it, as long as there is an objective necessity for the protection of human rights and humanitarian processes due to hostilities.

It is of fundamental importance that the return of 64 Armenian servicemen is being delayed due to the abuse of legal processes, arbitrarily assigning them the status of suspects or accused, and portraying them as terrorists, using their detention as a form of punishment.

Investigations and examination of complaints by the Armenian Human Rights Defender continuously confirm that Azerbaijan artificially prolongs the release of Armenian prisoners and others deprived of liberty and does not disclose the actual number of prisoners. This also contradicts international human rights protection requirements, primarily violating the rights of their family members.

Moreover, evidence gathered by the Human Rights Defender's office confirms that their number is greater than what Azerbaijani authorities have acknowledged. This also applies to the situation prior to the return of 44 prisoners.

All of this causes mental suffering for the families of the prisoners and creates tension within Armenian society.

The absolute urgency of the issue of releasing prisoners must also be viewed in the context of the anti-Armenian sentiments in Azerbaijan, which are encouraged by the country's authorities and even cultural figures (an urgent report based on evidence has also been sent on this issue).

Therefore, considering the humanitarian mandates and roles of the OSCE Minsk Group and the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in the protection of human rights, and that our compatriots have been captured in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), the letter invites the co-chairs' attention to the aforementioned and all other issues, raising the urgent necessity for decisive measures towards the release of prisoners and excluding the politicization of the issue.

I am aware that the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is also constantly raising this issue, including to the OSCE Minsk Group and the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office; however, given the urgency and fundamental importance of the matter, guided exclusively by the imperative of protecting human rights, I also decided to appeal, presenting the results of independent observations and complaints investigation conducted by the Armenian Human Rights Defender as an official endowed with a constitutional mandate for the protection of human rights independent of the Armenian government,” reported the Human Rights Defender.