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International child rights conference in Baku

25 May 2009 11:02 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Victoria Dementyeva â€“APA. International conference on â€œProtection of the rights of the child in extreme situations and role of the national human rights institutions in this processâ€ began in Baku on Monday. The conference was dedicated to the Children Year in Azerbaijan, 20th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and 60th anniversary of the Council of Europe, APA reports. Human Rights Commissioner of Azerbaijan Elmira Suleymanova said in her welcoming speech that the conference was dedicated to the human rights under the conditions of natural disaster and military conflicts. â€œPeople suffer and die as a result of climate changes and human activity in the world. The protection of human rights under these conditions is very importantâ€. The Human Rights Commissioner said third of refugees and internally displaced persons in Nagorny Karabakh conflict was children.

UNISEF representative to Azerbaijan Mohammad Bendriss Alemi said it was necessary to protect children from violence and exploitation and this work contained several elements: â€œIt contains, at first, the monitoring of protection of the rights of the child, supporting of the activity of organizations working in this field, implementation of social projects for the children suffered from various diseases, faced with violence, turned into refugeesâ€.

Chairwoman of the State Committee for Family, Women and Children problems Hicran Huseynova made report â€œImplementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in Azerbaijan: achievements and prospectsâ€. She said the protection of the rights of the child was one of the main directions of the Azerbaijanâ€™s public policy. â€œThere are 2.8 million children in Azerbaijan, 20 316 of them lost parental care, 3 144 are disabled children, 6 670 children are under the tutorsâ€™ care. 2009 was declared the Children Year in Azerbaijan and it demands much attention to the field of protection of the rights of the childâ€.

Lithuanian Children Rights Commissioner Rimante Salasevicuite, Moldovan Children Rights Commissioner Tamara Plamadeala and Chief of the Children Rights Office of the Russian Government Natalia Yakovleva are participating at the conference, which will finish on May 27. On Tuesday, best children art works and publications on the children rights will be awarded at the conference.