The ICRC in Azerbaijan
29-10-2010 Overview
In Azerbaijan the ICRC focuses on missing persons and on detainees held for conflict-related or security reasons, or who are otherwise vulnerable. It provides health support, particularly as regards tuberculosis in places of detention, and monitors the situation of communities along the international border with Armenia.
The ICRC has been working in Azerbaijan, in the context of the Nagorny Karabakh conflict, since 1992, monitoring the needs and concerns of civilians living along the ‘Line of Contact’ with Nagorny Karabakh and the international border with Armenia.
Ceasefire violations, along with the presence of mines and explosive remnants of war, continue to affect civilians living in these areas.
The organization focuses on the issue of missing persons and on visiting people held in connection with the conflict as well as other vulnerable detainees.
Materials and expert advice are provided to support the authorities in their efforts to combat both tuberculosis and multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis in Azerbaijan’s prisons. These efforts are complemented by ICRC technical assistance and management support to the national reference laboratory which opened in May 2009.
The ICRC also supports primary health-care services in Nagorny Karabakh and provides vulnerable people with food and essential household items, as well as helping with water projects and the construction of infrastructure such as safe play areas for children.
Another prime focus for the ICRC is to promote the implementation of international humanitarian law and its integration into the training of the armed forces as well as into university courses and school curricula.
The ICRC works to strengthen the capacities of the Azerbaijan Red Crescent Society, particularly its tracing and dissemination capacities and its mine action programme.
