Representatives of the interests of Armenian PoWs appealed to the European Court to take urgent measures to protect the fundamental rights of these people.
According to Siranush Sahakyan, the representative of the Armenian PoWs in the ECHR, they know info about 22 Armenian PoWs in Azerbaijan. 13 cases with an individual complaint, however, were submitted to the European Court.
"7 servicemen are under the control of the action taken by the Court, and we are waiting for an answer regarding 8 servicemen. After that we will publish the names of the servicemen," Sahakyan says.
Azerbaijan's information on Armenian PoWs submitted to the European Court is not enough. That is why the ECHR will request Baku for additional questions.
Regarding the case of the protection of the rights of 5 servicemen, the European Court requested information about their whereabouts, conditions of detention and medical care from official Baku to be provided by November 3.
The position of the European Court is that the countries should act within the definition of humanitarian law and respect the rules of treatment of prisoners of war, dignity, do not succumb to torture, do not take a step against life.
"We have seen that the European Court took immediate action not to bomb civilian areas, but bombing is ongoing. Given this risk, we have found it appropriate to enhance protection over each prisoner of war, personal data on whom we have," Sahakyan says.
Although the Azerbaijani government insists that the European Court does not need to take individual action, the ECHR did not agree with the approach, establishing permanent monitoring of prisoners of war.
According to Siranush Sahakyan, the mission of more independent monitoring groups, such as the Red Cross, is important. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has highlighted the visits of international organizations to prisoners of war, asked to speed up the exchange, and establish permanent control over all prisoners of war before the actual exchange process takes place this assessed as the most important step by the representatives of PoWs.
