© 2018. ILLUSTRATION BY NAREK KARDASHYAN
The presentation of the step by step guide “Human Rights in the Armed Forces” published by Peace Dialogue NGO took place on 30 November 2018 at Hotel “Marriott” in Tsaghkadzor.
Intended for disseminating the necessary practical information for the protection of human rights during military service among conscripts and their relatives, the step by step guide has been developed for the purpose of preventing cases of violation of human rights during conscription or military service if necessary. Specialists of the RA Ombudsman’s Office, the RA MoD and the Ministry of Education and Science were also involved in the preparation of the guide.
Published with the support of the Democracy Commission Small Grants program of the Embassy of the United State of America in Armenia, the step by step guide has been compiled on the basis of the citizens’ questions and complaints filed by Peace Dialogue NGO over the course of years.
Alongside the representatives of a number of human rights and media NGOs, the presentation was also attended by representatives of different subdivisions of the RA MoD, UN Development Program, the US Embassy in Armenia, and “Dasaran.am” education program.
At the beginning of the presentation, the authors of the step by step guide – President of Peace Dialogue NGO Edgar Khachatryan, lawyer Artur Sukiasyan, and artist Narek Kardashyan – presented to the participants the creation history of the guide and the challenges overcome during its development and talked about the necessity of the creation of the guide. In her greeting speech, US embassy political officer Ms. Somer Bessire-Briers also stressed the importance of the creation of such a guide as well as the establishment of cooperation between Peace Dialogue NGO and “Dasaran” Education Program: the partners from Dasaran.am – a website that unites students, parents, and teachers – have expressed their readiness in the process of the dissemination of the guide. Some components of the manual have been included in the online game “I Know My Rights” and the “Encyclopedia” segment of the website.
Suren Aloyan, Founder President of “Dasaran” Education Program, presented the game created on the basis of the manual and the segment added to the Encyclopedia. The section “Human Rights in the Armed Forces” has been added to the game “I Know: Army and Law” within the frames of cooperation with Peace Dialogue NGO; the mentioned applications have officially been launched on 9 November 2018. In order to develop the game application “I Know: Army and Law” based on the step by step guide “Human Rights in the Armed Forces”, 133 new questions with 532 options of right and wrong answers have been generated. The section “Human Rights in the Armed Forces” of the Encyclopedia operating in the website includes 49 articles.
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.
