On 23 January 2020, Armenia’s human rights record was examined by the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group for the third time. About a hundred representations of UN member states made speeches on the human rights situation in Armenia, asked questions, made recommendations. Of these hundreds of recommendations, there are specific recommendations to Armenia on the need to protect the human rights of the human rights defenders.
Human Rights House Yerevan, being a specialized organization dealing with the protection of the human rights defenders, is mostly interested in the recommendations given to Armenia regarding the protection of the human right of the human rights defenders and their proper implementation.
In January, after the completion of the third round of the UPR, the HRH Yerevan developed and implemented a number of actions to monitor the implementation of the recommendations. Particularly, the Advocacy specialist of the HRH Yerevan organized and held meetings with Ruben Rubinyan (the Chair of the Standing Committee on Foreign Relations of the National Assembly of Armenia), Sos Avetisyan (member of the Standing Committee on Foreign Relations), Arman Yeghoyan (the Chair of the Standing Committee on European Integration of the National Assembly of Armenia), Sargis Khandanyan and Maria Karapetyan (members of the Standing Committee on Protection of Human Rights and Public Affairs).
During the individual meetings, we have discussed the “Situation of the Human Rights Defenders in Armenia” report, which was prepared by HRH Yerevan and presented in the framework of the UPR 3rd circle. References were made to the problems that the Armenian human rights defenders are facing during and because of their professional functioning. We have also discussed the recommendations given to Armenia in that regard, as well as the key role of the National Assembly in the field of setting the standards of the human rights protection mechanisms. We have agreed our meetings to be of continuous nature and the agenda of our further cooperation was set.
We have additional agreements with other deputies of the National Assembly and the representatives of the Government of the Republic of Armenia to organize and discuss the human rights situation of human rights defenders in Armenia, as well as to develop the necessary actions that will improve the human rights situation of human rights defenders in Armenia. However, the agreements reached in this area and the efforts made may be in vain if the Government of Armenia will change unconstitutionally. This is especially important in terms of not stepping back from the achievements of democracy and human rights in recent years and ruling out unconstitutional solutions.