Human Rights & Democratization

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.

During the meeting a discussion was held with representatives of different subdivisions of the RA MoD, 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.

Peace Dialogue NGO has initiated a strategic litigation for the protection of the right of military servicemen who have graduated from military-educational institutions and refuse post-educational military service. With the involvement of lawyer Artur Sukiasyan, the organization is planning to apply to the court on the basis of one of the military servicemen enrolled in the RA Reserve Military Forces with the request to invalidate the RA government decree provision applied on him. In the case of refusal of post-educational military service, servicemen who have graduated from military-educational institutions must compensate the expenses of their education. The compensation procedure is set in the RA Governmental Decree 393-Nof 8 April, 2010.

Nevertheless, putting aside the occurrences when the deaths of the killed soldiers were presented as results of the ceasefire violation, 70% of the 1020 cases collected on the website are not connected with the violation of the ceasefire, instead they are the result of unresolved issues, unhealthy atmosphere in the army, and the non-statutory relationships.

Thousands of people have gone missing due to the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. More than two decades have passed since a ceasefire agreement was signed, but thousands of families still do not know what happened to their loved ones.

According to a report by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), 4,604 Azerbaijanis and 947 Armenians remain missing in the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. Most of them disappeared during the 1988–1994 Nagorno-Karabakh War.

Human rights in the military is an issue of concern to rights groups around the world. In Armenia, reports by local and international organisations and the US Department of State suggest a concerning situation in the the country’s armed forces.

Over a period of six years, from 2010 to 2015 the RA and NK armed forces suffered a total of 206 fatal casualties, of which 48 were results of suicides and 43 results of murders. That number does not include the fatalities that were the result of ceasefire regime violations on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and the line of contact. In percentage this numbers are equivalent to 23% and 21% of total non-combat casualties during the last 6 years.