© 2018. ILLUSTRATION BY NAREK KARDASHYAN
Dear visitors, Peace Dialogue NGO has released a step-by-step guide for future conscripts called “Human Rights in the Armed Forces.” As you have probably guessed from the title of the publication, the main goal of this guide is to help future servicemen gain practical knowledge of how to protect their rights during the conscription process and military service. In the past years, numerous non-profit organizations, international institutions, and expert groups have published various and versatile manuals and guides about human rights and freedoms in the armed forces. However, as a result of Peace Dialogue NGO’s work with young people of pre-conscription age, and their family members, a necessity of developing a similar, step-by-step guide appeared. The manuals and guides published so far have been targeted at the training of officers in the Armed Forces in human rights. This guide has been developed for future conscripts, as well as their family members with the aim to prevent violation against their relatives’ rights during conscription and military service, if necessary. At the same time, this guide can serve as useful material for the NGO personnel involved in human rights protection in the Armed Forces, as well as, for every citizen, who values human rights.
The guide has been developed based on the issues raised by citizens, who have applied to Peace Dialogue NGO over the past years. That is to say, the authors tried to introduce pre-conscription and conscription aged young people to their rights concerning the compulsory military conscription, as well as the service itself, in an easier and more comprehensive way.
Moreover, the Appendices, which form an essential part in this guide, clarifications and suggestions related to certain quick response tools are presented on specific points of the law, which will give opportunities to both citizens in compulsory military service and their relatives to take specific actions to ensure legal protection for themselves or for their relatives during the service.
We also highlight the fact, that our partners from Dasaran.am website expressed willingness to help in the disseminating of this guide. Moreover, based on this guide they will try to create an online game in their page “I know my rights”.
You can download the Armenian version of the guide “Human Rights in the Armed Forces” here (pdf, 5.9 Mb).
The guide was developed and published within the framework of the Peace Dialogue NGO’s Program “Promotion of Human Rights Mechanisms among the Future Conscripts in the Armenian Military Forces”.
The project is supported by The Democracy Commission Small Grants program of the Embassy of the United State of America in Armenia.
The opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed herein are those of the Author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of State.
