Ombudsman holds training on Protection of Children's Rights

A two-day training dedicated to the protection of children's rights in the context of migration was organized within the framework of Children's Rights Month with the joint organization of the Human Rights Commissioner (Ombudsman) Office of the Azerbaijan Republic, the State Migration Service and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Azernews reports.

Sabina Aliyeva, Commissioner for Human Rights (Ombudsman) of the Azerbaijan Republic, opened the event and gave an opening speech. She said that migration processes have increased sharply against the background of the socio-economic, political, and military situation occurring in several regions of the world, and children constitute a special risk group in this process.

The commissioner informed about the multifaceted activities in the field of protection and provision of the rights of persons who are participants in the migration process, including migrant children, and noted that there is close cooperation between the Ombudsman institution and the State Migration Service. Meanwhile, it was emphasized that joint events are being continued in the capital and regions to continuously improve the knowledge and professional skills of the employees of state institutions working in the field of migration in cooperation with international partners.

The ombudsman spoke about the reforms implemented in Azerbaijan for the protection of children's rights, including the changes made to the Constitutional Law "On the Human Rights Commissioner (Ombudsman) of the Republic of Azerbaijan", and said that it performs the functions of an independent monitoring mechanism for monitoring and promoting the implementation of the Convention "On Children's Rights".

Sabina Aliyeva brought to the attention of the participants that within the mandate of the National Preventive Mechanism, regular visits are made to detention centers for illegal migrants, migrants are received confidentially, and issues related to the state of ensuring their rights under domestic and international legal norms are investigated.

As a continuation of the opening ceremony, the head of the State Migration Service, Vusal Huseynov, gave a speech and said that for the first time, Azerbaijan has joined the “Global Pact on Safe, Orderly and Legal Migration”, which is a remarkable agreement that recognizes the central role of children in migration management and accepts child-sensitive migration policies as one of its 10 main principles.

Vusal Huseynov informed the participants about the main activities of the State Migration Service in the relevant field.

In addition to local specialists, experts from UNICEF, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Organization for Migration, and the International Committee of the Red Cross acted as trainers.

At the end, certificates were presented to the training participants.