Secretary General of the European Ombudsman Institute voices concern over Azerbaijan’s statement to launch missile attack on Metsamor NPP

Secretary General of the European Ombudsman Institute Mr. Josef Siegele released a statement referring to the recent escalation of situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.

“Human Rights Have No Borders

The European Ombudsman Institute is gravely concerned by the violence towards civilian settlements along the Armenia-Azerbaijan border.

The European Ombudsman Institute guided exclusively by human rights principles strongly urges both sides to protect peaceful settlements and to refrain immediately from using fires and shelling towards civilian population, without political acting.

We are especially concerned by yesterday’s official statement of the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan that they may launch missile attacks on the Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) of Armenia.

This statement is a clear threat to civilians and it may cause a humanitarian disaster. These kinds of statements undermine the international human rights system. The international humanitarian law has absolute prohibition for this kind of intimidation towards the civilian population.

Human rights are universal; they should be protected globally - whether Europe, Asia, Americas or any other place in the world!

The European Ombudsman Institute will continue closely following the situation for human rights protection purposes.

Mediations of Ombudspersons with political decision-makers of their countries should have continuous aims to protect civilian populations of both countries and to act in the sense of executing human rights in this difficult situation.

As a Human Rights Defender, I extend my special thanks to Mr. Josef Siegele for his dedication to human rights values and for his efforts to protect civilian populations of every country, regardless of any factor," he said in the statement.