The Council of Europe (CoE) Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatovic,  calls for the restoration of free movement along the Lachin corridor and to ensure the rapid and unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid to Nagorno-Karabakh. Her respective statement is presented on the Facebook page of Armenia in the Council of Europe.

Reiterating her earlier call for the restoration of free movement through the Lachin corridor, Mijatovic says that she remains “seriously concerned about the humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh and the human rights of its population following the blocking of the road running through the Lachin Corridor since December 2022.”

The CoE Commissioner for Human Rights notes that despite her calls and “those of numerous other international stakeholders, the humanitarian and human rights situation in the area has reportedly further deteriorated, affecting particularly the most vulnerable, due to the prolonged disruption in the movement of people and access to food supplies and urgent medical care.”

Mijatovic notes that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), “which is for the moment the only international humanitarian organisation operating across the Lachin Corridor, indicated that the population [of Nagorno-Karabakh] was facing a lack of life-saving medication and essentials.”

The aforesaid statement added that the “relevant stakeholders should immediately find a solution to avoid any further deterioration of the very dangerous situation the local population is facing and guarantee safe and free passage to those providing humanitarian assistance and those ensuring human rights protection.”