© 2018. ILLUSTRATION BY PEACE DIALOGUE NGO
On 29 November – 1 December the first working meeting of the Monitoring Group developed in the scope of “Proactive Civil Society Participation in the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights in the Armenian Military Forces” program took place at the Hotel “Marriott” in Tsaghkadzor. The aforementioned initiative of Peace Dialogue NGO aims at monitoring the actions deriving from the RA National Human Rights Action Plan for 2017-2019, measuring their efficiency and developing necessary mechanisms for establishing civilian control over law enforcement practice.
Matthias Kiesler, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Armenia welcomed the participants. In his speech he particularly stressed the importance of the role of civil society in the oversight of the government activities.
“After Nazi Germany, one of our lessons learnt has been the necessity of the establishment of democracy in the Armed Forces”, stated the Ambassador meanwhile expressing satisfaction with the fact that the initiative is implemented with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany. He also added that it is necessary to increase not only the civil society control over the activities of the armed forces but also that of the Parliament. The Ambassador promised to present the activities of the monitoring during his meetings with Defense Ministry officials on every suitable occasion in order to facilitate the cooperation between the Monitoring Group and the RA MoD.
During the meeting a discussion was held with representatives of different subdivisions of the Ministry of Defense, who introduced the activities carried out by their subdivisions within the scope of the National Human Rights Action Plan for 2017-2019 and the legal acts adopted as a result of these activities.
In its turn, the Monitoring Group presented the recommendations developed as a result of the analysis implemented by the group on the revision of the Action Plan of the Armed Forces derived from the National Human Rights Action Plan for 2017-2019. You may get acquainted with the recommendations here (English version, PDF, 365 Kb).
Along with the aforementioned, the group members also presented to their MoD colleagues the goals and objectives of the monitoring and the methodology and tools developed with the support of experts Diana Ter-Stepanyan and Artur Sukiasyan involved within the scope of the work meeting. By the end of 2019, the group will monitor and evaluate the RA MoD actions deriving from the HRD Strategy in three main directions:
- Investigation of the MoD performance of the activities implemented in the scope of the Action Plan;
- Analysis of the legal acts adopted in the scope of the Action Plan,
- Study of the law enforcement practice.
In the months of January-February 2019, the preliminary report of the Monitoring Group on the MoD activities implemented within the scope of HRD Strategy for 2017-18 and their efficiency will be published.
The final report of the Monitoring Group is expected to be published in October 2019.
About the Monitoring Group
The Monitoring Group consists of seven persons – representatives of Human Rights and Media NGOs.
The members of the Group are (by alphabetical order):
- Ani Sargsyan – “Asparez” journalists’ club NGO branch, Kapan Youth Civic Center,
- Anush Hakobyan – Transparency International ArmeniaAnticorruption Center,
- Edgar Khachatryan – Peace Dialogue NGO,
- Eduard Danielyan – Socioscope NGO,
- Mane Grigoryan – Peace Dialogue NGO,
- Shahane Khachatryan – Independent Journalists Network NGO,
- Zhanna Aleksanyan – Journalists for Human Rights NGO.
The experts of the Group:
- Artur Sukiasyan – lawyer,
- Diana Ter-Stepanyan – Transparency International ArmeniaAnticorruption Center
Project Coordinator: Marianna Khazhakyan, Peace Dialogue NGO.
For additional information please contact us at [email protected].
The project is supported by the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Armenia with means from the German Federal Foreign Office.
