OIC Commission adopts report of assessment mission on Azerbaijan’s Karabakh

By Trend

The report of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) assessment mission on Azerbaijani territories liberated from Armenian occupation [in the 2020 second Karabakh war] was adopted at the 18th session of the Permanent Independent Commission on Human Rights of OIC in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), Trend reports with reference to the Office of the Human Rights Commissioner (Ombudsman) of Azerbaijan.

During the session, the reports prepared on the basis of the assessment missions carried out within the mandate of the commission were discussed.

On September 22-26, 2021, delegation headed by the Chairman of the Independent Permanent Commission on Human Rights of the OIC Saeed Mohammed Abdulla Omair Alghfeli visited Azerbaijan's liberated territories of, as well as the territories affected by missile attacks of the Armenian armed forces against civilians and infrastructure of Azerbaijani districts located away from the combat zone during the second Karabakh war, to conduct an assessment mission, and prepared a report following the visit.

In this document, which was discussed at the 18th session of the OIC Independent Permanent Commission on Human Rights, war crimes in the territories of Azerbaijan subjected to Armenian aggression, gross violation of human rights and freedoms, destruction of national-cultural, architectural, historical and religious monuments, including the destruction, looting and desecration of mosques are regarded as a violation of international human rights and international humanitarian law.

The report contains recommendations on the creation of monitoring centers for international human rights by the UN, OSCE and other organizations to investigate human rights violations committed by the military-political leadership of Armenia, and to give them a legal assessment.

Moreover, it’s recommended in the report to create a multilateral coordination mechanism under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross to find Azerbaijanis who went missing from the first Karabakh war [in the 1990s] to date, to provide psychological assistance to their family members, to finance projects from the OIC, the World Bank and the Islamic Development Bank, supporting the return of Azerbaijani former IDPs to their native places.

The report is included in the program of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers summit, which will be held in March 2022 in Islamabad.