On 26 December, 2019, the Government of the Republic of Armenia approved the National Strategy for the Protection of Human Rights and the resulting Action Plan for 2020-2022. Attaching importance on enabling the proper implementation of such documents and the need for public control over them, the “Promoting Direct Democracy for Strengthening Human Rights in Armenia” project is being implemented in the framework of the “Eastern Partnership Civil Society Facility” project funded by the European Union. The objective of the project among other things is to conduct the monitoring of the Action Plan, as well as to inform the public, citizens and other stakeholders about the results of the monitoring.

In the first stage of the “Promoting Direct Democracy for Strengthening Human Rights in Armenia” project, three online seminars-public discussions were held on the presentation of the program, as well as on the discussion of the National Strategy for the Protection of Human Rights and the resulting Action Plan for 2020-2022. The main stakeholders, CSO and sectoral representatives and the parties responsible for the implementation of the Action Plan of the three regions of Armenia, Lori, Shirak and Syunik as well as the capital city Yerevan were involved in the seminar-public discussions. During the seminar-public discussions, the main methodological approaches, which will be the basis for the monitoring of the Action Plan, were presented as well.

At the moment, the development of monitoring methodology of the Action Plan presenting the main methodological principles and the evaluation matrices has been completed. It envisages that the monitoring of the action plan will be carried out by combining qualitative and quantitative methods, and a monitoring report will be compiled based on the evaluation results. According to the results of the evaluation, a package of recommendations aiming to improve the National Strategy, in general, and the protection of human rights in the country, will be presented to the competent bodies.

This publication has been produced in the scope of the “Promoting Direct Democracy for Strengthening Human Rights in Armenia” project implemented in the framework of the “Eastern Partnership Civil Society Facility” project funded by the European Union

The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of the fellow for the “Promoting Direct Democracy for Strengthening of Human Rights in Armenia” project and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Union.