Today, the Human Rights Defender of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) Gegham Stepanyan visited the Union of Relatives of Missing Freedom Fighters of Artsakh.
“Unfortunately, the fate of hundreds of people who went missing after the first Artsakh war was joined by the fate of those who had not yet been found after the Azerbaijani aggression in 2020.
And despite the work being done in this direction, the Azerbaijani side is not cooperating properly in providing information on missing persons to either the Armenian side or international organizations, despite the fact that there are undeniable facts that many people are under Azerbaijani control.
Behind the fate of every missing person, there are people who suffer from the pain of not knowing the fate and whereabouts of their loved ones and struggle against that uncertainty and the many consequences that follow.
Along with the terrible pain that only grows with the years, the relatives of the missing persons often face many social, psychological, legal, and economic difficulties. The daily care of both the state and the society is very necessary for them.
On International Day of the Disappeared, we are simply obliged to raise this issue again, to draw the attention of international organizations to this crucial issue.
Today I visited the Union of Relatives of Missing Freedom Fighters of Artsakh to discuss a number of issues related to the cooperation between the organization and the Human Rights Ombudsman’s office.”
