ArmInfo. "The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe bears responsibility for the humanitarian crisis in Nagorno- Karabakh, because our goal is the protection of human rights," PACE Monitoring Committee rapporteur on Azerbaijan, Norwegian MP Liz Kristoffersen, told ArmInfo correspondent.
She recalled that in December last year, the PACE co-rapporteurs on Azerbaijan and Armenia addressed the situation in the Lachin corridor in a joint statement. "We called on the authorities to open the Lachin corridor, the same call was made by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, the EU, the OSCE. My government in Norway is also urging the authorities to open the corridor," she said.
Speaking about her trip to Azerbaijan planned for the spring of this year to study the situation, as well as the fact that the Baku authorities do not let international observers into the conflict-affected territory for an objective assessment of the situation, Kristoffersen noted that in this case she would have to rely on several sources, including the OSCE, the Red Cross, Amnesty International and the Helsinki Committee. "Also, I can request information from the Norwegian government, the EU is working on this issue. There are several possibilities to collect information, and not only depend on what we can see on the ground," she said.
It should be noted that Liz Kristoffersen was previously recommended for the post of rapporteur on Azerbaijan, which is also mentioned in the notorious report of the European Stability Institute (ESI), which investigated allegations of corruption within PACE. The report notes that Kristoffersen's candidacy for the post of rapporteur on Azerbaijan in 2009 was blocked by Azerbaijani supporters. Then the supporters managed to appoint "their own man" to this post, who became Debono Grech .