Azerbaijan, Baku, 29 March / corr. Trend S. Agayeva/ The United Nations has adopted the Resolution by Azerbaijan on the Problems of the Missing People of Armed Conflicts. The draft resolution initiated by the Azerbaijani delegation was adopted in the 7th session of the UN Council on Human Rights held in Geneva, said Elchin Amirbayov, the ambassador and the permanent representative of Azerbaijan in Geneva Department of UN on 29 March.
The problem of the people who were missing during the armed conflicts is especially important for Azerbaijan as its more than 4,000 citizens still figure in the lists of the missing people during the Armenian-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Therefore this initiative is usually put forward by Azerbaijan in Geneva and within the UN General Assembly in New York.
According to Amirbayov, the draft resolution was adopted by the Council unanimously with 38 UN member states representing all geographical and regional groups of the Organization joining the document as co-sponsors.
The draft resolution adopted by consensus aims at focusing attention of the international community with the help of the Council on Human Rights to the importance of the problems of the missing people, the need for making timely, coordinated and efficient efforts by the international community, especially by the countries involved in conflicts to address problems of missing people and their family members, said Amirbayov during his speech on the draft resolution in the Council on Human Rights.
The draft resolution calls on countries involved in the armed conflicts to cooperate with International Red Cross Committee in identifying the destiny of the missing people and applauds the relevant work by the Committee and working groups on the national level. The Azerbaijani delegation has decided to hold open discussions in the Council on Human Rights in the September session regarding the problems of the missing people with the participation of non-governmental organizations, Red Cross Committee and national institutes on human rights. In the September session the Council is expected to request the newly-elected Advisory Council on Human Rights to conduct study into the useful experience in addressing the problems of missing people. The draft resolution also requests UN Secretary-General to develop a comprehensive report on the fulfillment of the resolution until March of the next year.