Representative of UN Secretary General: "Over 63% of internally displaced persons in Azerbaijan live in poverty"

“The main problem of internally displaced persons in Azerbaijan is that the Nagorno Karabakh conflict has not been solved peacefully,” says the report prepared by UN Secretary General’s representative on the rights of internally displaced persons Walter Kalin, by results of his visit to Azerbaijan.

The document reads that Azerbaijan joins a number of international organizations on human rights and country’s constitution ensures human rights, normal treatment of prisoners and freedom of expression.

Walter Kalin writes that the government tries to improve the situation in the sphere of human rights and notes that President Ilham Aliyev signed National Action Plan on the Protection of Human Rights.

“There is an ombudsman institution in the country. It plays one of the most important roles in the protection of human rights of internally displaced persons. The main problems of IDPs in Azerbaijan are low level of employment, low living standards, problems concerning health care and nourishment. There are some cases of discrimination while employing IDPs, admitting them to school and offering medical service to them. Integration of these persons into Azerbaijani society goes slowly. But there are some positive points. The government has exempted IDPs from taxes and tuition fees. Early in the 1990s the government thought of returning IDPs to their native lands, but beginning from 2000 the government focused on improving living standards of these people. This is a positive step. Though there is a special state program in connection with internally displaced persons, the majority of them still live in camps and trains,” the report says.
Walter Kalin underlines in his report that Azerbaijani government provided thousands of IDP families with houses.

“The majority of them continue to live in bad conditions, sometimes a family having four or six members is obliged to live in one room. Internally displaced persons are helped to get jobs in schools and hospitals, but they still face problems with getting jobs in private sector,” the report says.

Highly appreciating the activity of Heydar Aliyev Foundation and SOCAR, Walter Kalin underlines that the amount of assistances to internally displaced persons has increased thanks to the growth of GDP.

“International organizations should be more active concerning the solution of this problem. I was moved by the local people’s care of IDPs. But IDP children have more problems, though they do not pay for education, most of them have no books or copy-books,” he writes.
Walter Kalin also writes that 63% of IDPs live below the poverty line in Azerbaijan.

Walter Kalin visited Azerbaijan in March last year and familiarized with the camps in Baku, Sumgayit, Sabirabad, Imishli and Bilasuvar.

/APA/