WRITTEN QUESTION E-1249/03 by Olivier Dupuis (NI) to the Commission. Chechen children going without schooling and Chechen newborn babies going unregistered in Azerbaijan.
Date: 2003-04-02
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Azerbaijan, EU relations, civil status, discrimination on the basis of nationality, refugee, right of asylum, right to education

7.11.2003

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 268 E/181

(2003/C 268 E/204)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1249/03

by Olivier Dupuis (NI) to the Commission

(2 April 2003)

Subject: Chechen children going without schooling and Chechen newborn babies going unregistered in

Azerbaijan

Following the resumption of hostilities in Chechnya in 1999, tens of thousands of Chechens have fled their
country and are taking refuge in neighbouring countries, where they very often live in extremely difficult
conditions. Thousands of them have found refuge in Azerbaijan. In addition to the enormous material
difficulties that Chechen refugee families have to face, they have been prevented from registering Chechen
children born in Azerbaijan with the civil authorities of that country over the last three years. According
to well-informed sources, around 100 Chechen children have been born in Azerbaijan since the hostilities
resumed. Chechen children have also been refused access to schooling.

What information is available to the Commission on the obstacles that Chechen families taking refuge in
Azerbaijan encounter when registering the birth of their children born in Azerbaijan? What information is
available to the Commission regarding the schooling of Chechen children in Azerbaijan? What steps has
the Commission taken, or what steps does it intend to take, to ensure that Chechen children born in
Azerbaijan can be registered and can attend school?

Answer given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission

(2 May 2003)

The Commission is aware of the situation of Chechen refugees in Azerbaijan from publicly available
information sources.

According to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) at the end of 2002 there were
62 registered refugees and a further 5573 with asylum applications pending.

The Commission is grateful to the Honourable Member for drawing attention to the problem and will
consider how best to address it within the context of our Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA)
with Azerbaijan. The next PCA event will be the European Parliament-Azerbaijan Parliament Cooperation
Committee scheduled for 28 and 29 April 2003 in Baku.

(2003/C 268 E/205)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-1250/03

by Herman Schmid (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(26 March 2003)

Subject: GATS (cid:1) Liberalisation of drinking water

The EU produced a draft initial offer for improved market access to services on 6 February 2003. This
request was sent to 109 countries, of which 94 are developing countries, in the framework of the General
Agreement on Trade and Services (GATS).

According to the initial draft offer, the EU itself is not intending to liberalise drinking water under the
GATS.

However, the actual content of the 109 requests reveals that countries like, for example, Bangladesh are
asked to open up their markets for drinking water supply. The requests have been made public by the
Canadian Polaris Institute (http://www.polarisinstitute.org/gats/main.htm).