© 2022. ILLUSTRATION BY PEACE DIALOGUE NGO
In response to the public inquiry on August 30 made by the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia to come up with recommendations on the new 2023-2025 Action Plan deriving from the National Strategy for Human Rights Protection, Peace Dialogue NGO presented a package of recommendations consisting of 24 points. Those were developed based on the analysis of the issues raised by the monitoring group formed by Peace Dialogue which has been implementing monitoring of the defense sector-related actions deriving from the National Strategy since 2015.
The recommendations are enlisted below.
Right to Life
- Develop and introduce standards for publicizing non-combat deaths in the Armed Forces based on the study of international best practices.
- Conduct a study to identify the causes of suicides in the Armed Forces. Develop a concept for a rapid resolution of the raised issues.
Prevention of Torture
- Define precise criteria for identifying cases of torture and ill-treatment in the Armed Forces as such and considering them disclosed or undisclosed. Publish statistical data based on the criteria.
- In the Action Plan, include baseline data on the cases of torture and ill-treatment in the Armed Forces, as well as on the investigation of these cases.
Conscription and Mobilization
- In order to ensure the right of effective appeal of conscripts, establish a new procedure for the examination of conscripts’ health condition by the RA Central Medical Commission. Set such dates for the medical checkup so that conscripts who disagree with the conclusion can exercise the right of appeal before the army recruitment. In the event of an appeal, the implementation of the administrative act which is the basis of conscription must be suspended and not executed until the legality of the administrative act is reviewed by a superior or judicial procedure. Set short deadlines for the courts before the citizen is recruited to resolve the dispute or extend the period of medical checkups.
- Review the system of reservists’ three-month trainings. Examine the shortcomings of the current system in terms of human rights and efficiency, including the implementation timing, content, and material damages in terms of persons’ involvement. Develop a mechanism for mandatory medical checkup of trainees before joining the trainings.
Prevention of Discrimination
- Study the compliance of the conditions of female servicepersons’ military service with international standards. Identify the obstacles and take measures to solve them.
- Develop mechanisms to establish public oversight over the actions being conducted.
Rights to Freedom and Security and a Fair Trial
- Establish mechanisms for video recording of activities (administrative) carried out by MoD Military Police personnel with the immediate involvement of servicemen. Ensure that the recording is unavoidably attached to the proceeding’s materials through a flash drive. Hold accountable if the requirement in unfulfilled.
- Establish mechanisms for public oversight over the disciplinary battalion.
- Deliver trainings on human rights, especially the right to life and the prevention of torture and discrimination to the disciplinary battalion personnel.
- Add the provision of the safety of an arrested serviceman undergoing compulsory military service to the credentials and duties for military police officers in disciplinary brigade and Military Police garrison isolation units defined by the law on Military Police.
44-day war
- Establish the legal status of missing persons as a result of the war by a legal act. Develop a legal framework to provide support to the families of missing persons as a result of armed conflict.
- Legislatively specify the status and warrants of a participant in military actions during the armed conflict.
- Conduct a comprehensive study on the physical and psychological condition of the persons returned from captivity. Provide individualized, long-term, and consistent support based on research findings. If necessary, develop a mechanism for early demobilization, reduction of the term or continuing the service under special conditions of a mandatory conscript soldier who has returned from captivity. Allocate a separate budget.
- Develop an operative plan for responding to human rights in a war situation by learning from the 44-year war lessons. The plan should include a clear-cut division of functions of state institutions, including a precise definition of subordination, additional human rights response staff, a mechanism for informing citizens about their relatives, as well as a rapid and unhindered mechanism for information exchange between state institutions. A separate detailed budget for the operative plan should be prepared in advance.
Military Education, Courses and Trainings
- Conduct a research to identify the effect of the courses and trainings dedicated to human rights delivered for Military Police personnel, investigators, prosecutors, and judges on practical application of the human rights international standards. Identify the shortcomings of the trainings and their implementation in order to introduce a higher quality and more targeted trainings in the upcoming Action Plans. The research should include not only short-terms courses and trainings but also the subjects taught in military universities (trainings on human rights and integrity) and the Academy of Justice.
- Deliver trainings on mental health for officer-psychologists and future officer-psychologists – highlighting practical issues.
Institutional Reforms
- Conduct a research on institutional and practical situation and issues on the provision of integrity in the field of defense sector in the Republic of Armenia and develop concept for the assurance of integrity in the defense sector.
- To open a position of psychologist in the RA MoD Human Rights and Integrity Building Center.
- Conduct a study on the effectiveness of the institute of officer-psychologists and identify possible obstacles.
- Introduce a mental health diagnostic system in the Armed Forces.
General Observations
- Ensure the coherence between the action plans deriving from the Human Rights Protection strategy and the Human Rights Protection Strategy and other sectoral strategies (e.g., those of judicial-legal reforms, anti-corruption) and provide continuity of actions.
- Clarify the performance indicators of the strategy, define clear and measurable indicators for each action or measure, as well as develop mechanisms for their effective monitoring and evaluation.
- While developing a new Action Plan, take into account possible risks during the implementation of actions (e.g., an epidemic, conflict escalation, internal and external political crisis, limited resources) and develop mechanisms aimed at neutralizing or reducing the risks.
