The NGO Network for the Protection of the Rights of Forcibly Displaced Persons from Artsakh was founded on March 12, 2024, uniting twelve civil society organizations, ten of which were established and are led by our compatriots forcibly displaced from Artsakh and Azerbaijan. The network’s mission is to promote the integration of Artsakh Armenians in Armenia by strengthening the mechanisms for protecting their rights. The Armenian Lawyers Association, which serves as the network’s secretariat, has provided free legal assistance to 305 individuals in the past year alone.
Karen Zadoyan, President of the Armenian Lawyers Association, told Iravaban.net that the idea for the network emerged after the war unleashed by Azerbaijan on September 27, 2020.
“At my suggestion, our organization included in its strategic plan to provide legal assistance to Artsakh Armenians and to help organizations uniting Artsakh Armenians register as non-governmental organizations. In this way, we helped about 10 organizations receive state registration, and subsequently assisted them with organizational development issues and strategic planning. We helped some of them secure temporary financial resources to carry out their organizational activities,” he noted.
According to Karen Zadoyan, the Armenian Lawyers Association serves as the secretariat of the NGO Network for the Protection of the Rights of Forcibly Displaced Persons from Artsakh. It has several functions: organizing management board meetings, preparing agendas, drafting various statements based on organizational proposals and submitting them to the management board. The most important function is providing legal assistance to Artsakh Armenians and documenting their stories.
“The fact that Artsakh Armenians need legal assistance is undeniable. We conduct mobile visits to settlements where Artsakh Armenians reside, provide legal consultation through an online platform, telephone calls, and through visits by Artsakh Armenians to our office,” said the ALA President.
The platform https://armrights.am/en has been created to implement legal support more effectively.
“We have restored the rights of Artsakh Armenians in numerous cases, but I also emphasize that as a result of this rights protection, we have recovered more than 17 million drams that had not been provided for various reasons. I believe that for those individuals who received these recovered funds, it was very important for them,” noted Karen Zadoyan.
He mentions that the network works with the state in a very constructive format and highlights what gaps exist that need to be addressed.
Details in the video.
