In 2020, the Armenian Lawyers’ Association conducted monitoring of the implementation of the Action Plan for 2020-2022 deriving from National Strategy for Human Rights Protection, and as a result submitted proposals to the relevant bodies.

According to Ms Syuzanna Soghomonyan, ALA expert, lawyer, during the monitoring the actions were evaluated not only quantitatively, but also qualitatively, considering the impact of the specific action in this or that sphere. The proposals were submitted to the Ministry of Justice, as well as to other competent bodies, which were related to the implementation of a specific action.

“The monitoring was carried out from May to September, and summed up in October-November. And the second Artsakh war began in September. And from this point of view, the negative, gross violations that we witnessed were not included in the report, because the field work was done before the start of the war. But, nevertheless, this did not stop us. In the second stage, we discussed and developed relevant proposals for the protection of the rights of war victims, for the protection of the common human rights, guided by the principle that human beings are considered the highest value; all changes in the national strategy must henceforth be based on that value, and not be just words and principles that have remained on paper,” Syuzanna Soghomonyan said.

According to her, these proposals addressed the issue of the return of prisoners, and which must be included in the Human Rights Protection Strategy; the second is the issue of the rights of people with disabilities as a result of the war; and the third is the issue of forcibly displaced persons who were forced to leave home, possessions, and moved to other places..

“Concrete proposals have been submitted on these, including issues related to prosthetics, rehabilitation, psychological support, employment, the right to education, of servicemen as well as other issues. We think that the national strategy, if not completely, should be changed by 50-60% and adapted to the new realities,” the expert said.

According to our interlocutor, the Ministry of Justice agreed with these proposals. The meeting of the steering committee of the Human Rights Protection Strategy took place in December, during which the proposals were submitted and fully approved.

However, these changes have not been made after about 5 months. According to the information we have, they were passed to Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan, but as such, there is no progress,” Syuzanna Soghomonyan said.

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Alisa Chilingaryan