Public discussions on raising awareness on “Promoting Direct Democracy for Strengthening Human Rights in Armenia” project and the discussion of the RA “National Strategy for the Protection of Human Rights and its Implementation Action Plan for 2020-2022” are underway.

After the regional discussions, today, on 21 May, a public discussion with the participation of Yerevan civil society organizations, local self-government bodies, lawyers, various departments and other interested parties was organized as a final discussion.

Deputy Minister of Justice Christine Grigoryan in her speech, thanked the Armenian Lawyers’ Association for organizing the discussion, emphasizing the role of civil society organizations in the field. “The implementation of the principles and defense mechanisms enshrined in the Constitution and the international obligations undertaken by Armenia in guaranteeing and ensuring human rights in Armenia, in practice, since independence, continues to face serious challenges and I think this can be considered a joint record. Our government has declared the violation of the rights of individuals as the most important priority, which should be addressed, both in its program and in its activities, and the most important thing is to develop and implement an institutional and systematic policy of guaranteeing and protecting human rights,” the Deputy Minister said.

Ms Nina Pirumyan, Head of the Research and Educational Center of the Human Rights Defender’s Office, spoke on behalf of the Human Rights Defender Arman Tatoyan: Speaking about the National Strategy for the Protection of Human Rights and its Implementation Action Plan for 2020-2022” she noted, “At the design stage, the strategy and action plan have been widely discussed. Our discussions with the Ministry of Justice are ongoing, both in terms of collecting problems in the field and in terms of their correct targeting, formulations and other issues related to our partners in the civil society organizations and the author of the draft. It is very important that the implementation of the draft, which has already been adopted, would be ensured based on the same principle – by direct public discussions and direct control.”

Mr. Karen Zadoyan, President of the Armenian Lawyers’ Association in his speech mentioned, “It is one thing that the government implements and controls the process with its control mechanisms, but it is another thing when it is done by the independent public eye. The things that are not visible to the government are visible to various public, legal and human rights organizations. If the right methodology is chosen and research is done, we will also have the opportunity to highlight the problems in the field, because the protection of human rights is of the highest value and manipulations should not be done for various political and other narrow corporate purposes and interests.”

Ms Syuzanna Soghomonyan, “Promoting Direct Democracy for Strengthening Human Rights in Armenia” Project Manager, introduced the intended objectives to be implemented within the framework of the project. “There are four main directions in the scope of the program: the first is the implementation of monitoring, the second is the study of international experience, as relevant proposals on the strategy will be presented, the third stage is the involvement of the youth and the fourth – the most important stage is public awareness,” she said. According to her, an evidence based report on the legal and sociological bases will be elaborated in the scope of the project.

Ms Sonya Msryan, Sociologist-expert of the project, mentioned that in addition to quantitative data the qualitative data will be monitored as well. “We will use the methods of expert interviews and focus group discussions,” she said.

Representatives of the police, the National Assembly, the Special Investigation Service, the Investigative Committee, the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Chamber of Advocates, the State Revenue Committee, the State Commission for the Protection of Economic Competition, the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport, the Statistical Committee and human rights activists also took part in the discussion.

The participants mentioned a number of sectoral issues, which will be summarized by the legal expert and will be taken into account in the process of monitoring, reporting and elaboration of proposals.

It should be added that similar discussions have already been held with the participation of CSOs, local self-government bodies, lawyers and other interested parties of the RA regions.

“Promoting Direct Democracy for Strengthening Human Rights in Armenia” project is funded in the framework of the “Eastern Partnership Civil Society Facility” project funded by the European Union.