On April 25, a press conference was held at the Foreign Ministry of Abkhazia with the participation of a delegation of the UNPO (Unrepresented Nations and People’s Organization). The event was attended by Irakli Tuzhba, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Abkhazia, Lucia Parrucci, the Coordinator for lobbying for UNPO - and Fernando Burges, the Head of the Policy and Research Division of UNPO.

Opening the press conference, Irakli Tuzhba, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs stressed the importance of advancing of the issue of the right of Abkhaz citizens to free movement in all international platforms, and also expressed gratitude to members of the UNPO delegation for their active support and assistance in solving of this complex humanitarian problem. “We are well aware that, on the one hand, the problem is humanitarian in nature, but at the same time it comes into contact with political aspects, therefore, there is no reason to expect a speedy solution to the problem. But we maintain optimism and hope that representatives of the European community attach great importance to the solution of issues related to the observance of human rights. I would like to hope that in the near future citizens of Abkhazia will be given the opportunity to exercise their fundamental right to freedom of movement, -” stressed Tuzhba.

Fernando Burges, head of the policy and research department of UNPO, told about the history of the organization’s foundation, as well as about the main activities.

“The organization was founded in The Hague in 1991, in the same period Abkhazia became its member. Since that time we are moving in the same direction. It may be said that the recent history of Abkhazia is closely intertwined with the history of the UNPO organization itself. If we talk about the main activity of the organization, then it is generally based on defending the rights of small nations and nations to self-determination,” stressed F. Burges.

Mr. Burges noted that one of the main goals of the organization is to help UNPO members in defending their interests in the international arena. According to him, the organization will actively assist the Republic of Abkhazia in solving of important problems of a humanitarian nature related to freedom of movement. In particular, representatives of the organization plan to conduct an analysis of the current situation, on the basis of which a synthesis report will be prepared on the problem of restrictions on freedom of movement for the citizens of Abkhazia.

“We will try to solve the issues of freedom of movement, which concern those residents of Abkhazia who possess only Abkhaz citizenship and are limited in their ability to move freely around the world. There are a number of other partially recognized states such as Palestine, Kosovo and Northern Cyprus, but solutions were found in their case when agreements were reached and concluded with some world countries, allowing citizens of these countries to travel abroad on their national passports. Thus, there is a global practice of recognizing national passports, without recognizing the sovereignty of certain states,” noted F. Burges.

“We will start with the European Union and will move on, convincing all the actors with whom we will communicate that this is a blatant violation of human rights when about 30% of the population cannot exercise their basic rights, in particular the right to freedom of movement,” said F. Burges.

Members of the delegation also answered questions of journalists.