Azerbaijan, Baku, 3 March / corr Trend S.Agayeva / At the UN Council of Human Rights Azerbaijan will submit for discussion an issue on the rights of people missing as a result of armed conflicts. A draft resolution on the rights of missing people will be put forward for discussion at the 7th session of the UN Council of Human Rights to be held in Geneva from 3 -28 March, Elchin Amirbayov, the Azerbaijani permanent representative at UN based in Geneva, told Trend in a telephone interview on 3 March.
Azerbaijan, as a country which suffered from Armenian aggression and lost 4,353 people, both military and civilians, considers it important to include the draft resolution to the consideration of the Council. The draft document gained support from over 60 countries when it was considered at the UN General Assembly.
The conflict between the two countries of the South Caucasus began in 1988 due to Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since 1992, Armenian Armed Forces have occupied 20% of Azerbaijan including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and its seven surrounding districts. In 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement at which time the active hostilities ended. The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group ( Russia, France, and the US) are currently holding peaceful negotiations.
A resolution on the necessity of liquidating the Commission on Human Rights and establishing the Council with the same name was made at the UN Summit in 2005. A resolution on the obligations of the Council and rules for its establishment was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 15 March 2006. Representatives from 47 UN member-countries, including Azerbaijan, were elected to the Council.
Amirbayov said that the UN Secretary-General Ban Kee Moon and the UN High Commissioner for human rights Louis Arbur, as well as senior officials from the Council member-countries participated in the opening of the session. The Azerbaijani delegation also participated in general debates.