Humanitarian affairs
International Committee of the Red Cross
The ICRC has been working in Azerbaijan since 1992 in relation to the aggression of the Republic of Armenia against Azerbaijan. It focuses on the issue of missing persons and on detainees held for conflict-related or security reasons, and works to protect and assist communities living along the Line of Contact and the international border with Armenia. It promotes implementation of IHL and its integration into armed and security forces’ training and into academic curricula. The ICRC works in partnership with and aims to help strengthen the capacities of the Red Crescent Society of Azerbaijan.
In partnership with the Red Crescent Society of Azerbaijan and the British Red Cross, the ICRC continued to implement activities to help people living in villages along the Line of Contact and the international border become resilient and self-sufficient. These included improving their access to water for drinking and irrigation, providing them with livelihood opportunities, and affording them better protection against exchanges of crossborder fire through home repairs.
Resolving the fate of people who went missing during the conflict remained a priority. The ICRC assisted the Azerbaijani State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons (CEPOD) in setting up and managing a centralized system for ante-mortem data collected from the families of missing persons, providing technical support throughout the process.
National Society/ICRC teams and the Azerbaijan National Agency for Mine Action (ANAMA) continued to collect data on minerelated incidents and the needs of families who had lost breadwinners in such incidents. In accordance of ICRC information, 12 households (50 people) in Azerbaijan who had lost their breadwinners in mine/ERW incidents boosted their income or food production through livestock activities, aided by productive inputs.
Issues related to missing persons are important for Azerbaijan. There are 4046 missing persons in Azerbaijan. With local partners, the ICRC continued to provide comprehensive support for the psychosocial needs of families of missing persons while encouraging the authorities to enforce their right to free medical care and other benefits.
Permanent Mission of Azerbaijan in Geneva continues its regular work and activities with ICRC. In that regard, as a result of intensive interaction carried out with ICRC at Geneva, the historical names of different locations in the Nagorno Karabakh region of the Republic of Azerbaijan (Aghdara, Khojavand and etc.) were also mentioned in the relevant reports of this institution. At the same time, new map with regard to the administrative territory of Azerbaijan was prepared by ICRC, whereby the occupied territories of Azerbaijan were highlighted through special signs.
International Civil Defence Organisation
Azerbaijan is a member of International Civil Defence Organisation since 1993. The Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Republic of Azerbaijan is closely cooperation with it. Azerbaijan was unanimously elected as a member of the Executive Committee of this organization for the years of 2015-2018.
United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction
Azerbaijan is also closely cooperating with UNISDR (United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction). In May of 2013, Permanent Mission participated at the 4th Global Forum on Disaster Risk Reduction organized by UNISDR in Geneva.
