Today, on 24 August, “Promoting Direct Democracy for Strengthening Human Rights in Armenia” project in cooperation with the “Armenian Lawyers’ Association” NGO, organised and held the oral round of the Republican Conference the “RA National Strategy for the Protection of Human Rights: Prospects and Challenges”. The round was held on the online platform.

The written round of the conference was held before the oral round, where all the reports were reviewed by the judges and the young people with the highest scores were invited to participate in the oral round.

Mr. Arman Tatoyan, the Human Rights Defender of the Republic of Armenia, Ms Kristine Grigoryan the Deputy Minister of Justice of the RA, Mr. Karen Zadoyan the President of the Armenian Lawyers’ Association, Ms Anna Karapetyan the employee of the Department of International Legal Cooperation of the Ministry of Justice of the RA and the Head of the International Cooperation Department of the Human Rights Defender Mikayel Khachatryan assessed the participants’ work in the oral round.

About two dozen students from different regions of Armenia participated in the written round of the conference, and seven of whom passed the oral stage:

Ms Nare Smbatyan (French University in Armenia, Faculty of Law), Ms Victoria Hakobjanyan (YSU, Postgraduate Studies in Law), Ms Mariam Karapetyan (Armenian-Russian (Slavonic) University, Faculty of Law), Mr. Ori Bakunts (State University of Goris, Faculty of Law), Ms Elen Hovhannisyan (Vanadzor State University, Faculty of History and Geography), Ms Saida Ohanjanyan (Goris State University, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences), Ms Varduhi Suvaryan (Gyumri “Progress” University, Faculty of Law).

The participants of the conference presented their reports, talking about the prohibition of torture, protection of health, education, life and other fundamental rights, the guarantees of the independence of judges. They presented the current state of the topics they had selected the existing problems in the sphere, the proposals aimed at their solution.

The winner of the conference was Ms Victoria Hakobjanyan, who had prepared a report on the right to health care. Ms Nare Smbatyan was the second; she referred to the judges’ pension as a social guarantee. Ms Saida Ohanjanyan was the third; the subject of her research was the right to education.

After summarizing the results, the judges informed the participants about the quality of work, advantages and disadvantages, advised to continue taking active part in such events.
The participants, in their turn, thanked for this educational opportunity.