Today, on April 3, the Human Rights Protection Coalition was formed in the scope of the “Human Rights: Monitoring and Publicity” project implemented with a grant allocated by the EU-funded “Commitment to Constructive Dialogue” project organised a discussion on “Hate Speech and Challenges of Human Rights Activism in Contemporary Armenia: Culture, Institutions, Settlement.”
Mr. Armen Galstyan Executive Director of the International Center for Human Development noted that the theme is interesting and the lack of tolerance in Armenia is not a new phenomenon. “It exists for a long time and it takes different forms of expression and different shapes. In my opinion, this phenomenon has existed and has been aggravated and demonstrated at different events and occasions and targets different groups,” Armen Galstyan said.
It should be noted that the discussion was held in accordance with “without reference” format so that the participants would present their position more freely on different issues.
Ms Zhanna Alexanyan, the President of the “Journalists for Human Rights” NGO, noted that during the implementation of the sub-grant project, several targeted sections were selected, among which the issue of threats to human rights defenders was highlighted. “It seemed that after the revolution we would not have these problems with such sharpness. There were problems that lasted short but now we see that it is continuous and targeted. This attitude is also obvious against the attorneys,” she said.
The participants of the discussion expressed their concerns, noting that the lawyer should not be identified with his client. “A part of society, who has hatred towards the client, begins to speak in the same way against the attorney, especially in social networks, insults, threats, hate speech. One should not think that this is just a word and it does not lead to any negative consequences if the lawyer does not read it. It is not so, the family members of the attorney read these comments, their surroundings, their neighbours, and suddenly you see that the neighbours who have been in a very warm relationship with you have changed their attitude. There is such a phenomenon, which has recently increased,” a participant said.
Ms Nina Pirumyan, the Adviser to the Ombudsman, presented the available tools, strategies and development opportunities to address and overcome the challenges against human rights activists.
